Dark Breed
by Teri Archer
Summary: Fiske is an ancient soul on the verge of turning. At the mercy of madmen intent on annhilating his kind only one thing keeps him whole, a woman's voice in the darkness. Can he find help from oddities of a race bred for the destruction of the Carpathians.
1. Chapter 1

The air felt heavy and hot bound in muggy darkness bereft of stars and moon. There was the feeling of something hard beneath, grainy like sand but solid and damp against her skin. Consciousness came slowly, her body ached as if recovering from the grip of a long illness and she lay still in the all consuming darkness still drowsy, waiting for reality to return to her. Scents began to play around her, soil, stone, damp, sewage and the iron tang of blood all mixing in the still air calling her back from sleep. What noises there were sounded mute, voices muffled not by her ears but by the barrier that still existed in her sluggish mind between sleep and waking. She listened intently trying to will the sounds to her from obscurity.

Water came first, a slow drip from somewhere close, the whispering rumble of her own breathing added to the rhythm followed by the offbeat groan of pipes overhead. In this dazed state Vespera let herself drift for unable to wake fully and yet not willing to slip back into unconsciousness. Images played back to her while she dozed, a long car journey in the heat, white buildings harsh against a foreign countryside, a long hall packed with uncertain jostling people. Scenes switched suddenly a long black staircase, her socked ankles being held in unfamiliar hands, concrete walls stained with dark liquids rushing by, a room so full of unfamiliar frightened people she could feel the air being forced from her lungs as the crowd suddenly huddled together, screams in the darkness.

She baulked at the unsettling images her ankle colliding heavily with soft flesh. Vespera opened her eyes jerking her leg away. The room she was in was small and in darkness casting its contents into shades of grey and shadow, breezeblock and concrete made up the decor and narrow bunks lined the walls. Two doors were outlined in the gloom, one leading to a bathroom by the smell and the other heavily fortified making the room a prison cell. There was one other thing, something disturbing in the gloom. Half sitting now, swaying with the effort, Vespera surveyed the prostrate shapes strewn over the concrete floor, half a dozen people deep in the same slumber that had held her only a few moments before. By her feet lay a heavyset women covered in an array of dark tattoos. It was she Vespera had accidently kicked only a moment earlier but the lady slept on oblivious to the blow. Tentatively she reached out this time with a hand and shook the sleeper hard.

"Wake up." Her voice sounded slurred and hesitant but loud as a gunshot in the chamber. There was no response from the sleeper, Vespera shook hard again

"Please wake up." The woman slept on and Vespera withdrew to her own space again.

A loud crash from the direction of the fortified door made her jump. Light streamed through a small square temporarily blinding her, she covered her eyes as the room was flooded in an eyrie array of colour.

"One's awake Doctor." A man's voice boomed out over the silence.

"Let me see." A pair of eyes appeared blocking the light and casting the room once more in mute shadows. The voice was clinical and cold. "Get her out, I want to examine her in the open while the drugs still have a hold."

Bolts were drawn back in a series of heavy grinding scrapes, the cell door opened. Men in combat gear poured into the room, but these did not look like ordinary soldiers, their movements were wrong, unrefined and eager, their appearance too was unpolished, mismatched. They held strange weapons, guns but with an odd assortment of attachments, including the glass of what she could only assume was a torch above the nozzle. The men aimed these at her and the sleepers nervously as if expecting to be attacked at any moment. Two men grabbed her arms and jerked her to her feet. They held her hard, hurting her skin walking her out of the room faster than she could stumble so that she ended up being half led half dragged from the darkened room out into blinding light.

Vespera blinked. The corridor outside the cell was concrete, stretching in either direction until it disappeared round unknown corners. Two doors other than the one she had come out of lined the walls close to one another, one similar on the other side of the corridor, the other next to the cell door polished steel with a reinforced look, supposedly stronger than the other two. There were more of the odd soldiers out here; she did not like how they looked in her direction, hungry expressions full of knowing malice.

A pair stood out from this crowd, a neatly dressed elderly man whose hair was patchy and white wearing a white coat like a badge, probably the doctor referred to by the guard. The other was clad as the other soldiers but this one held himself differently and stood apart, his appearance orderly and congruent. It was only out here in the light did she notice her own clothes had changed. She vaguely remembered a skirt and shirt but now she wore what she could only describe as hospital scrubs, a pale blue trouser and top combination that she'd come to associate with medical dramas. The unexplained change in clothes made her shudder, the thought of unfamiliar hands on her skin repulsed her.

The moment her escort had stopped the doctor took her head in his hands and began to move it from side to side, checking her eyes. He stared at her as if she were a particularly interesting specimen taking his time with the examination. She still felt muggy the movements he put her through sending her off balance, whatever the drugs were they had mentioned earlier they still had a hold.

"You look puzzled doctor." It was the well dressed soldier who stood watching the proceedings. The doctor turned and began sorting through a medical bag.

"This one doesn't seem as advanced as the other batches General. Her pupils have yet to show the first signs of a reaction." Cold sweat began to break out on her back. Reaction, reaction to what? What had they done to her while she was unconscious. Fear began to rage within her. The doctor pulled out a syringe.

"We can only hope the rest of her set progress as usual." Vespera struggled to move away from the needle, the fear seemed to be flushing through her brain, washing away the drug's effects.

"What did you do to me?" Her voice sounded stronger than before, she tried to pull back again but the men held firm.

"Who the hell are you? Let me go." The doctor ignored her concentrating on the needle.

"Hold it still gentleman, we have a limited amount of equipment out here and I don't want to break this taking a blood sample."

The General took hold of her arm, wrenching it so that the veins on her forearm where visible. She screamed as she felt the needle burrow into her skin.

Men jumped back bringing their guns round fearfully. Another cry had started, almost at the same time as her own, but this one was like no human voice. It seemed to radiated anger, odium and desperation, the cry of a soul in torment. The sound cut her to the core, Vespera felt strangely connected to it, a deep link touching some part of her that had remained dormant. From behind the polished door came the sound of wrenching metal and the heavy thud of furniture being destroyed as if some cadged thing were trying to break free. The General pushed back his cap.

"That damn monster." He moved over to a small panel by the door and hit some of the buttons there. From around the edges of the door's viewing panel light spilled as if a flashbulb had suddenly been let off inside. The unnatural screams changed to pained cries and then to silence. The General hit the door hard with the palm of his hand."

"If you don't want another dose keep quiet in there." He turned to the Doctor.

"Are you finished with her?" The doctor tapped the red syringe.

"Until the lab work comes back. I wouldn't fit the collars on that batch yet, they may not be suitable."  
"Fine. Get her back in the holding pen, and then we'd better see what damage the creature has done to his room this time." The General motioned to her escort.

Vespera felt the hands pull her up, she was thrown backwards through the doorway and landed hard among the bodies, rolling away quickly to try and find her own space away from the motionless figures. Her hand touched the line of rough bunks, still weak from her ordeal she pulled herself tentatively onto one and lay back, her head spinning with the new information, working away at the conversation in the corridor. What had been done to them while they slept, what were the other batches the men talked about and who were the other people in the room with her? The thought that seemed to occupy her most though was the voice from the other room. Who and what was the creature it contained and why did she feel such a connection to the beast? She drifted, watching and waiting, half hoping to hear the cry again, needing even the small shred of comfort the strange noise brought her as she lay caged in the endless darkness haunted by disturbing questions she could not begin to answer.


	2. Chapter 2

Burnished agony faded gradually. After an age it became mere pain then with infinite slowness even this dulled to the memory of pain. All his recent memories were of pain, pain and a rage that could not be allowed to take hold, no matter how hard it struggled. His inner darkness fought to break free, to break him and turn him to way of the vampire for all time. He caged it within as he himself was caged, starved, broken, locked away from the healing touch of the earth and for so long treading the knife edge between Carpathian and vampire.

For Fiske Mather old memories were distant, unreal, a grey twilight inhabited alone for centuries after all colours had bleached from the world. Childhood was millennia gone now, and as adulthood came he had learnt to hunt those lost to darkness, to their own bestial natures, without hope of redemption, the vampire. He had been a hunter for centuries, more than long enough to see old friends lose themselves to the dark, to hunt old playmates who had given in to bloodlust, to feel its pull himself as the world faded around him and the kill became the only action to stir any feeling within him.

Almost a year ago he had known that soon he too would have to face the sun, to die in light fatal to his kind rather than allow the beast inside to take hold. But before he could face the light he had been found sleeping the sleep of his people, weak from recent battle. That day alone overshadowed all other memories. Men had ripped him from the earth, bled him and pumped him full of strange toxins until he was too weak to move, then encased him in this concrete hell. All too soon he had discovered the cells method of containment reliant on his aversion to sunlight, this too became the preferred method of punishment from his captors, the exposure to the strong UV rays blistering his body and burning his eyes. He remembered lying awake and with the full range of heightened senses as the torment of the first session of experimentation began and the next and the next until the torture blurred into one long sequence of agonies. They took his blood and gave him barely enough to survive, kept him so very weak that he did not have the strength to fully heal himself. Scars covered his grey skin along with new blistering, raising welts on his arms and back, his head was bare from prolonged exposure to the light and part of his lip was torn revealing one long incisor amongst rows of perfect teeth.

He would have happily endured it all again for that one sweet second when her voice penetrated his dark world of torment. He had lived for the first time the moment their voices rang out together into the night and colour seeped back into the shadows of the world and he felt, he felt for the first time in millennia true sorrow, anger and odium against the men that had held him for so long. He knew instantly as all Carpathian males did who the dulcet voice belonged to, even having never laid eyes on her. His lifemate, light to his darkness, day to his night, the other half of his soul, his one chance of resisting the dark call of the beast within. And they had hurt her, they had made her cry out in the darkness. Now his suffering within these walls would be nothing compared with theirs when he broke free. For both their sakes he had to break free from this place.

Even in his diminished state the need to bond her to him was agonisingly strong. He thirsted for her blood above even his thirst for blood to ensure his survival and found restraint hard, he bit back the ritual words of bonding that hung on the edge of his tongue and above all crushed his physical need for their union. He was always watched here, his captors were not guileless madmen, if they could use her against him they would and in his current condition he would be powerless to stop them. Always there was the darkness to consider, even now there was the chance of turning. His hunger for her was already alarming, he feared the taste of her blood would drive him over the edge, above all he feared losing control near her. To allow the darkness inside him to touch her would be unthinkable, he had not waited so many years to fail them both now.

The door opened slowly, interrupting his contemplation. General Melville always came in first, as if to show the others there was nothing to fear from the beast they had caught. He and the doctor were the only ones who didn't stink of fear and sadistic excitement when they entered this room. Soldiers followed, they changed so regularly that Fiske no longer bothered to name them, he could hear the fast hiss of their blood in their veins, see the heated glow where the ruby liquid flowed near the surface of their skin, now more than ever they were all prey. But he did not attempt to attack them, or move towards the door that lay infuriatingly half open, experience had taught him that a man would be stationed near the switch for the light and would not hesitate to use it should Fiske attempt attack or escape.

The General righted one of the heavy tables Fiske had toppled and pushed it back against the wall. The room had little furniture in it, put their more for his captor's convenience than Fiske's comfort, but Fiske had strewn it far and wide even in his weakened state making large dents in the metal surfaces. Melville barely glanced at the wreaked room as the men began to put it to rights, staring superciliously into his captive's eyes. Fiske stared back quietly composure, refusing to be intimidated by the man's presence. The General smiled at Fiske's equanimity.

"I'll be damned if you aren't developing a suntan Frankenstein." Melville chuckled at his own joke and sat on the corner of the newly righted table.

"What's the matter? Feel we weren't giving you our full attention." The boot connected with Fiske's blistered skin in a concerto of agonies, Fiske didn't even bother to right himself. Melville smiled coldly and rose.

"Your tantrums may be wiping out our equipment budget single handed but we'll manage, even if we have to house you in less comfortable surroundings or break you into pieces to keep you quiet."

A scent caught Fiske's nostrils and filled them, a perfume all of its own. The heady iron tang of new spilt blood, her blood, somewhere in the room with him. He looked round bemused. He would have seen her if she was here with him, drawn by her like a moth to a flame, but there was nowhere here to hide and she was definitely not among the soldiers that swarmed over the toppled furniture. The scent was somewhere close to him, somewhere near.

As General Melville turned to him again he saw what he was looking for, a tiny spattering of blood almost invisible to the human eye, coating the man's hand and forearm. For a second Fiske froze the beast within rampant within him, the man had her blood on him, all his instincts were to kill Melville, protect his mate but Fiske fought these down. Killing the man here would do him no good, he would still be trapped and so would she. He tried to concentrate. The blood was not from a blow Fiske judged by the pattern, some other penetrative wound, too little for a knife, possibly the withdrawal of a needle. His mind whirled, here was a way to taste her blood, to temporarily sate that part of him that was crying out to bind her to him. But the General was too far away and Fiske was weak after the blinding lights, he needed him closer, he would have no time at all once he actually got hold of the man, a second if he was lucky. Fiske straightened slightly.

"Think you're the man to break me General." Hissed Fiske slowly, Melville turned his smile frozen.

"Bit spirited today aren't we Frankenstein."

"Idle threats toy soldier." The General stopped smiling. Fiske had had a year to judge the man's character; he knew which buttons he could press to anger Melville. The General took a step closer snarling.

"Careful Creature, I can make it bright as day in here."

"Always hiding behind your technology, think you could bring me down so easily on your own."

Fiske had cut deep, Melville closed the distance between them in two steps, it was as closer than Fiske dared to have hoped for. Gathering the last of his strength he struck, by Carpathian standards clumsily, but still more than enough to catch the man off guard. He wrenched back the man's arm , ignoring the harsh snap of bone and tearing of muscle, and quickly caught the thin sheen of blood on his tongue. Even tainted as it was by the tang of the man's skin it was a moment to savour, his first taste of her. It sent fire through his bloodstream, made his mind dance and spin as his body absorbed this first physical link to her.

His triumph lasted only a moment. Before he could move further he heard the snap of the electric lights. He let go of the General and threw up his hands in an attempt to shield his eyes. He felt his skin blister and crackle, felt the excruciating wave of sensations as his body burned under the harsh lights. He heard the men yelling, felt Melville disappear from his grip, heard the metallic clang of the door slam and yet still the agony continued. He fell now curling into a ball to try and protect himself from the light, forcing himself to lie still as his nerve endings set themselves alight. After what seemed like an age the lights snapped off, leaving him raw and aching the ordeal over for now. He waited patiently for the pain to fade focusing instead on unravelling the minuscule scents of her the men had brought with them through the open door, concentrating on the taste of her within his own body, examining the tiny links between them that his recent sacrifice had brought him. As he lay in the cooling darkness he waited for his body to recover, knowing that there would be further retribution for his assault on Melville and willing to endure anything for what he had gained, the first bond that would join them together for eternity.


	3. Chapter 3

Tiny changes in the darkness interrupted Vespera's train of thought. She had been sitting still for quite some time, waiting for the inevitable change to her surroundings that would bring new information. The time she had had alone to think had brought no answers to her situation, no matter how she had twisted what little information she had, she was still clueless as to why she was here and what had been done to her. The being in the adjacent cell troubled her, she couldn't stop thinking about the brief connection she had felt to it. The contact had changed her in some indeterminable way, deep within herself.

When she was young she had often been affected by the feelings of others, emotion imprinted itself on her forcing her to feel what others where feeling , to experience joy, pain and anguish far beyond what she could bear. In time she had learnt to control her powers, initially to stop the torrent of feeling around her finding its way in and eventually to imprint her own emotions on others. It was not telepathy, although she sometimes found she could extrapolate from her gifts and experience of certain personalities to tell what people where thinking. Her gift was more an extreme form of empathy which for a long time she had found difficult to bear. She wondered if the creature had similar gifts, if that was the connection she kept coming back to, or whether the enormity of emotion within that cry had broken through her carefully constructed safeguards. She felt instinctively the creature was male though she didn't know why, the noise she had heard was too inhuman to judge gender. Never before had she felt drawn like this to a man, or woman for that matter, it was as if she was waiting, a bud unable to bloom without the first rays of the sun. Now it seemed there was no more time to ponder, on the strange creature or her predicament, things were happening.

The carpet of people covering the concrete floor beneath her were beginning to move slowly, coming to themselves in the starless night as she herself had done what seemed like an age ago. Shadowy figures begin to appear in the gloom, hushed and hesitant voices started to ring out unsteadily in the darkness. Questions filled the air as people began to take in their surroundings, Vespera noted the frightened pitch behind every voice, the uncertainly behind every appeal, she didn't need her gifts to read the fear in the room. People felt the walls, the floor, and the bunks touching the cold surfaces as if pinching themselves in a dream. A few of the figures went to try the locked door.

"I wouldn't recommend it." Vespera called out as a man drew a hand back to bang on the metal panel.

"It's locked. Whoever is on the other side of that door, they aren't friends."

People turned noticing her for the first time, they seemed uncertain, their movements unsure. The man with the raised hand hesitated.

"Who're you? What's going on here?" The man's voice was one of command despite the sluggish edge, it sounded pinched with nerves. Vespera stood up slowly trying not to frighten those around her.

"My name is Vespera, I woke up a little while ago. We've all been drugged. I don't know why. There are armed men outside..."

"Did you say drugged?" It was a thin woman to Vespera's left. She had a defensive look about her. Brown hair tied was scrapped back in a neat ponytail and she knelt by a younger woman of similar appearance, cradling her companions head in her lap. Vespera nodded, people were starting to move towards her now, for comfort or for information, all were listening intently.

"Yes, I..."

"Woah, wait a minute. Did you say armed men? Soldiers..." It was another man to her right sitting cross legged on the floor, long light hair haphazardly framing a face full of disbelief; he looked as if he should be in college somewhere.

"If they're soldiers surely they'll let us out." It was the first man hand still half raised. Another woman nearer the back of the group nodded.

"They can't keep us here, it's illegal to detain us like this."

"Well there you are then." The man drew back his hand again to bang on the door. Vespera started forward.

"Wait. I don't think they're soldiers, and I don't think they're concerned about legality. They dragged me out of here and stuck a needle in my arm before throwing me back in. They didn't want to answer my questions, they didn't even want to acknowledge me. Think about it. Is this the kind of room you really put people in if you're going to let them wander around freely?" The man sneered

"It could be a mistake. People get put in prison by mistake all the time."

"It's not a damn prison cell."

Vespera started at the new voice. It was seemingly measured but Vespera felt a carefully hidden edge that spoke of rage and pain. The tattooed lady Vespera had accidently kicked rose from the floor in one smooth movement as if the drugs had never had a hold. She was bigger than she had looked hunched on the floor, bright red hair was cut so that one side was down to her shoulder whereas the other was shaved almost to her skin. Indentations on her skin marked where piercings had been recently removed and in a few places scars marked where others hadn't taken and healed over. She stretched, revealing another inch of tattooed flesh where the scrubs didn't quite meet, and stood looking nonchalantly over the occupants of the room. People around her moved away, there was something disquieting about her, as if the calm exterior were hiding something dark within. At the door the man step back a few steps suddenly unsure.

"You'd know would you?" He said warily, the wavering bravado an attempt to regain control of the situation. The red haired lady barely glanced at him, instead she walked lazily over and stared hard at the space between the door and the frame. After a moment she gave a short hollow laugh and stepped back shaking her head.

"Definitely no prison cell. You could stop a frickin' elephant with that." Still chuckling she wondered over to one of the bunks and lay down, hands tucked casually behind her head.

"You wouldn't cram 'em in like this either, specially since we've not been charged yet. We could be concocting stories and alibis all over the shot. We'd be in nice little singles to be interviewed one at a time. This is more like holding pens at a slaughter house."

Panic began to bloom amongst the group Vespera felt it inch up her spine like ants, in the background someone started to cry, the voice sounded young, too young to be caught in this mess. People hunched together seeking comfort in numbers, on the ground some of the group still lay groggy from the sedatives unable to fully comprehend what was happening. Vespera felt the mob mentality forming, if they didn't calm down soon someone was going to get hurt, trampled or attract the attentions of those outside. She focused, forcing herself settle, searching for a point of tranquillity within herself. Soon her breathing gently softened her heart slowed, her mind cleared of everything. When she felt herself still she let the feeling concentrate around her, spilling out into the air and flooding the small cell like smoke. In mid action people seemed to stop dazed, blinking as if they were looking into a bright light. Many began to sit cross legged on the floor like school children at assembly, the apprehension and dread drained out of them.

Vespera sagged slightly; the action had sapped her strength considerably in her weakened state and even so the subdued mood wouldn't last long, she would have to act now if she were to use the momentum she had created. She tried to keep her voice calm omitting the shaky undertones her actions had brought on.

"A holding cell it may be but not a slaughter house, if it were we would not have woken up. So we have to ask ourselves what we are here for. What's the last thing people remember before waking up?" The woman with brown hair raised her head, arms still holding her unconscious companion, protecting her from the crowds.

"My sister and I were in our room at the Webster Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes. I settled Serenity in for the night, the journey seemed to have wore her out. I had a glass of water and started feeling tired myself so went to bed early...Then I woke up here, and found Serenity lying sprawled just beyond me." She stroked the unconscious woman's face and the loose scrubs hanging stiffly on her as she moved.

"Serenity will only tell you the same story when she wakes up, you don't have to ask her as well. It will only distress her more." Vespera smiled reassuringly.

"I'm sure we won't. What's your name?" The woman hesitated, glancing up from her sister briefly before replying .

"Sophia, Sophia Trent."

"Thank you Sophia. What did you visit the Centre for, if you don't mind me asking?" Sophia stiffened slightly, again there was hesitation before she answered, Vespera had the sensed that the woman was considering how much information to divulge. She seemed to move even more protectively over her sibling as she spoke.

"Serenity's... unwell. She disappears, sometimes for days at a time. When I find her again she doesn't know how she got there, can't tell me where she's been. We were sent to a specialist by the hospital, he recommended that I book Serenity in for treatment at the Centre."

"I was at the CSAPP as well." It was the light haired man, still sitting cross legged on the floor where Vespera had last seen him. He smiled broadly at Sophia, she appeared to relax slightly as he spoke.

"A man cornered me after a gig, said they were studying the effects of music on the mind at a Psyc Centre he worked at and they needed a musician. The pay was really good and I got bed and board too. The first night I'm spent from the car journey and after about twenty minutes of fiddling with my guitar I hit the sack...wake up in this place. Name's Jordan by the way." He paused looking at Sophia. "Look can I help you get her onto one of the beds, the floor's freezing. You could still sit with her, those things look like they'll hold both of you easy."

Vespera watched as Sophia wordlessly allowed Jordan to pick her sister up and lay her carefully on one of the bunks. Sophia sat in the small space left at the end stroking hair out of Serenity's face. Jordan smiled at them and went to sit on the floor nearby. Vespera felt something pass between the two strangers in a glance and instantly blocked her own empathic abilities, even though the signs of mutual attraction were visible on both their faces, some things were private, she would not pry where she could help it. The rest of the group were beginning to talk now. Of those that were awake all had fallen asleep at the Webster Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes and woken up in the cell. No-one else remembered being carried down there, no-one else remembered the crowded room. She learned names as the conversation progressed. The man at the door was called Ty, a businessman brought to the centre to discuss a donation for a new wing. The woman who had mention legality earlier was Rachel, a lawyer who'd been sent to negotiate an insurance settlement at the Centre. There was also Tryst, Liam, Nico, Bow and Adam who like Serenity had all come to the centre for treatment in some form or other. Vespera said nothing about the conversation she had heard outside the cell, about the Doctor or the General. She did not want to panic the group and she wasn't sure what she had heard anyway. There would be time for that later. The red haired woman lay silent on her bunk throughout with her back to the group, she took no part in the conversation though Vespera had no doubt she was listening to what was being said. As the conversation died Vespera glanced over the group once more.

"Does anyone else remember anything, however small?" There was silence, people shook their heads making the shadows dance around the cell. Vespera glanced one more time at the woman on the bunk, she could still feel the rage bubbling away from her, it made Vespera hesitate but she had to know what had brought the woman here, to glean what she knew. She took a deep breath.

"We haven't heard your story yet, we would like to, if you feel you can tell us, if it is not too painful for you."

The woman's shoulders shook slightly for a moment as if she were silently laughing. She didn't turn but her voice drifted in out of the blackness washing over the group.

"Painful...no not painful. Not for me anyhow." People were edging away from the bunk now, Vespera felt the fear begin to rise again. The woman seemed to stretch out further wiggling her feet off the end of the bunk.

"You want my story...ok. Once upon a time a very naughty lady and several even naughtier men were sent to a nut house in the desert for evaluation before being locked up. When they got there and stepped out the van they were handed little plastic glasses full of pink liquid to drink. The naughty men, thinking they were being given free uppers, downed the juice and passed out. The beautiful, talented, charming and extremely clever woman having learnt long ago never to trust a screw in a white coat threw hers at a nark and was hit over the head...hard."

"And you woke up here." Said Tyron now sitting by the door, he seemed to want the red head to finish. In one smooth movement the woman spun round so that she was now sitting on the bunk her full attention on Tyron and a nasty smile on her face.

"No." Vespera's heart missed a beat, she could hardly breath. The whole room felt tight and hot hanging on the strange red heads every word.

"I woke up strung between two screws dragging me down a corridor, large glass windows on the walls, darkness beyond. At first glance I thought it was night time and decided to play dead for a while, in case the bastards holding were feeling sadistic after their juice bath." She turned to stare at Vespera, she was still smiling but the voice was measured and mirthless.

"And do you know what, I looked up and there was a hand on the glass...no...not really a hand, more like...more like the paw of a nightmare. Fingers fused into three separate digits, fingernails thickened and black claws, skin grey and corpse like and on the underside of the wrist was a number...234. There were more hands on the glass as we moved, I was too low to see any more but at every window there were the hands, pawing at the glass as we passed and on their wrists...237,238,243, 251. They all had numbers and they were all as grey and deformed as the first."

The room hung in silence, no one dared even to breath. The story was unbelievable but they were holding onto every word. Vespera almost couldn't comprehend what she was hearing, until she looked in the woman's eyes and saw then the terror hiding there, terror the red head would not allow to surface, terror veiled by the indifferent air she wore. Tyron was the first to speak.

"Rubbish, you expect a room full of grownups to believe that fairy story. I bet the only true bit of it was that you were on your way to jail. Best place for you if you ask me."

The woman said nothing but sat with her hand clenched round her wrist, rubbing at the skin as if it had committed a personal betrayal. She gave Vespera a hollow smile, her voice suddenly had all the composure and hidden rage drained out of it.

"Look at your wrists."

Tyron snorted as if it were all some joke, but pulled back his scrubs complaining loudly.

"This is ridiculous, what are you expecting us to..."

He stopped mid sentence. No one spoke. Even Vespera could no longer quell the sense of dread rising within her as she stared in disbelief at her own wrist. There, carved into her own flesh by an unknown hand was her own mark, same as the things behind the glass. Staring back at her 272 stood out bold and black against her skin and just twenty one digits ahead of monstrosity.


	4. Chapter 4

All around the tiny cell voices rang out in shrill panic. There was nothing Vespera could do and she watched exhausted as many of the cells occupants ran at the exit door. On the other bunks, Sophia pulled her sister out of harm's way as Jordan and a man called Bow put themselves between the two woman and the terrified mob. The red haired stranger sat cross legged and silent one hand clasped over her numbered wrist, the hollow smile still playing on her lips.

As the first blow struck the door it swung open scattering people left and right with its force. Armed men swarmed into the room, the strange weapons held in front of them like shields. There was no General this time but in the centre stood the Doctor a small bag at the ready eyes scanning the terrified crowd dispassionately. Dim lights flickered on overhead and Vespera had to cover her eyes after the perpetual darkness of the room. People tried to press themselves against the walls away from the armed men but the cell was too small and there was nowhere to hide.

The Doctor pointed at the nearest person and two of the guards dragged Adam to his feet pinning his arms behind him. The Doctor tilted Adam's head as he had done with Vespera and pushed the man's lip up slightly so he could look at his incisors. Adam baulked at the Doctor touching his mouth and was rewarded with a blow to the stomach. The Doctor sighed and waited for the soldiers to pull the wrenching man to his feet again.

"Keep it still gentleman or we'll be here all day."

He pulled Adam's lip up again and had another look in his eyes.

"Well it seems when he recovers the General can be informed that this batch was not a complete failure. Hold it outside and let's have a look at the next one."

The two men pulled a still stunned Adam from the cell. Another two soldiers grabbed Tryst, Vespera thought with a little too much eagerness. The Doctor repeated the same procedure but at the end rubbed his temples.

"No, not yet, throw it back and get me another." Tryst was sent stumbling backwards, Vespera grabbed the woman before she could hit the floor and pulled down next to her on the bunk. The next person was one of the still unconscious bodies on the floor, the Doctor raised the woman's eyelids and then checked the neck. He stood up vexed.

"Dead, put it with the biological waste for a DNA wipe, then burn it."

The sorting continued amongst the rising fear within the cell. Another of the woman on the floor was declared dead and sent for burning while Nico, Rachel and another unconscious man were sent out of the room supposedly to join Adam. The Doctor seemed particularly pleased with the lawyer and she was bundled out of the room, almost fainting, but still with more care than the other three. Eventually the Doctor turned to Sophia's small group huddled on the hard bunk, the woman seemed to shrink back over her sister as the soldiers approached while in front of the bunk both Jordan and Bow looked ready for a fight.

Nearby the red haired stranger straightened, Vespera felt the subtle change in the woman's emotional state as this new situation presented itself, anger washed over the tint suppressed fear, blocking it out almost entirely.

"Hey it's my turn to play Doctors and Nurses, haven't played that since I was a nipper." The red head called out brashly. The Doctor stopped his advance towards Sophia and turned to the woman.

He motioned to the guards who crowded round the stranger, she held out her arms as they reached for her, grinning impishly.

"Give me a hand up, these cots play havoc with your back." The men stopped puzzled, but both reached out and pulled her to her feet. It did not escape Vespera's notice that by offering the men her hands the red head had thrown them off balance and they had not pinned her arms as effectively as they had with the others. The woman nodded at the approaching Doctor.

"Hang on, gonna sneeze." She took a hurried breath and the Doctor backed up a few paces a look of pained disgust on his face. The red head shook her head and sniffed.

"Maybe not, carry on Matron." The Doctor once more advanced. The woman was at least a head taller than him and he had to reach up to grasp her face, as he did so she sneezed blinding him and sending him stumbling backwards .

"Whoops my bad."

The Doctor fell against one of the soldiers sending the man sprawling over one of the unconscious bodies still to be examined. The soldier's helmet came off and Vespera heard the crack as his exposed head came into contact with the cell wall and saw the bright red smear as he slid towards the floor. In the chaos that followed Vespera found it hard to see or believe what happened next. As the soldier hit the floor both the prone man he had fallen over and another lain nearby seemed to spring into a hunched crouch. They seemed almost bestial, hands drawn into claws mouths hung longing half open, for a moment Vespera even imagined their eyes seemed to glow red in the dim light. Then with unimaginable speed both fell on the half conscious soldier, using their nails to rake at his flesh, biting and tearing at his face until their mouths were wet with blood.

People screamed, the horrified Doctor scrambled backward out of the door as the soldiers piled in weapons raised. Light flared from the gun's torches just like it had under the gap of the door and Vespera heard a high pitched unearthly shriek rise from the two creatures. There were shots, cries and screams all around as the cell's occupants tried desperately to get out of the way of the two monsters. Vespera saw the red head shake free of one of the men holding her only to be struck hard with a gun butt by the other. She fell, blood streaming from her temple.

Immediately the two beasts seemed to frenzy. She could hear the dying shrieks of one as the armed men concentrated their fire but the other cleared the crowd of soldiers in a single bound and stood sniffing the new scent in the air with undisguised relish. The red eyes fixed on the prone woman and its mouth gaped hungrily revealing two large curved incisors already stained with blood. It crouched, poised to spring at the new food source.

Vespera moved between the red head and the creature without thinking, bundling the mix of fear, anger, revulsion and pain inside her into one tight hot ball of negative emotions. The thing ignored her and leapt and as it did she thrust the bubble forward out of her body with every ounce of strength she had left, force feeding the beast all the emotional horrors she could dredge up from her psyche . The effect was instantaneous, the creature screamed and scuttled backwards clawing it's head as if trying to dislodge the barrage of feelings from its brain.

Vespera collapsed to her knees sweat pouring from her skin, her breathing shallow and fast, the action had been too much for her, her head swam, but her attack had still lacked potency. Already the creature was shaking off the effects of her assault the terrible eyes now focused on her, it began to crawl forward.

"_Move."_ The voice was deep and accented, melodious with a wealth of undertones too great for her to comprehend. It resounded inside her head filling her mind and lifting her heart, coursing along that undefined connection she had felt earlier. Feelings which were not her own surged into her through every barrier she had ever erected to defend herself. She sensed darkness and anguish mixed with passion and patience, a mind beyond endurance almost torn in two. The voice came again more urgent than ever.

"_You will move."_ Beneath her, her legs tried to force themselves under her and she staggered two steps sideways as the creature inched closer. But there was no more, voice or no voice her legs could no longer bear her and shaking, half laughing, half crying she sank once more to the floor.

She looked up to see those terrible eyes staring into her own, the rank teeth baring down, she cried out, her mind flooded with terror. She heard the speaker again, felt a mind full of torment and rage crying out into the darkness.

"_Kill it."_She had no more energy but half raised a hand ready for one more assault before the monster tore her to pieces. It raised a claw like hand to strike her down, a triumphant look on its face.

There was a dull thunk. The creature dropped, a look of pain and surprise imprinted on its face, mouth still agape. Shaking violently Vespera raised her head. One of the metal bars ripped from the sleeping bunks pierced the thing's back at the chest, pinning it to the concrete, already unnaturally dark blood began to coat the floor below. As the pool edged towards her Vespera felt herself being picked up and steadily carried away from the carnage as around her the soldiers began to pull the remains of the fight from the room.

The occupants of the cell stared in numb silence as she was lifted through them and placed carefully on one of the bunks at the back of the room. As she looked up the red head came into view, drying blood now coating one side of her face, her eyes strangely dull and passive. Vespera watched as the woman pulled a blanket from one of the upper cots and place it over her shaking frame before arranging on the edge of the bunk, as if on guard, eyes watching the activity of the soldiers and the rest of the prisoners in equal measure.

Vespera tried to sit up but her body wouldn't let her. Something was wrong, the red head felt oddly docile, the medley of anger and fear from early vanished as if it had never been. The gaping wound on her forehead was so deep Vespera was sure she could see bone but the woman showed no signs that it was even there. At the back of her mind the connection with the unknown voice seemed to throb like a beating heart. Although silent for the moment Vespera got the distinct feeling whoever the voice belonged to was watching her intently, the sensation made her skin prickle uneasily. She eyed the red head again, trying to take her mind from the other consciousness as exhaustion began to make her eyes heavy.

"What's your name?" The woman continued to stare at the activity blankly, when it came, her voice was cumbersome in sharp contrast to earlier.

"Angel."

"Did you kill the...creature?" Angel didn't even glance at her. Her answer was slow and hesitant.

"Yes."

"Thank you." The woman was silent. Vespera's eyes once more went to the wound on her forehead.

"Doesn't that hurt Angel?" The silence continued. The cleanup operation seemed to be over and the armed men were beginning to remove themselves from the room. Vespera could feel herself beginning to drift, she clung onto consciousness unwilling to drift off in this new situation. Angel straightened as the door began to close once more plunging the room into darkness, her voice clung to the gathering shadows.

"You should sleep now. I will keep guard."

Vespera felt herself slipping away. She tried to pull her mind away from the tendrils of sleep that were trying to take hold, away from the rest her mind and body so desperately needed not trusting the safety of her surroundings. She felt the connection in the back of her mind bloom, the voice came, shrouding her mind and dulling her senses, carrying her under with it in an embrace she could not resist.

"_I will keep guard. Sleep."_

Then there was only darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

n the cool darkness of his cell Fiske felt Vespera's mind slip into a deep slumber. He lingered in her thoughts a moment longer than necessary, basking in the wave of new sensation the mental touch brought him, before reluctantly withdrawing into himself once more. He had not yet moved from the balled state adopted during the most recent onslaught by the reviled lights. His body's response was excruciating, his eyes were weeping a thick red liquid and his skin still burnt to the touch, the pain pounding as the air brushed against his wounds. Fiske fought against the urge to move and relieve some of the agony. As soon as he showed signs of waking the men would be upon him for further chastisement and he needed time to deliberate this new situation.

The shock of his mate's fear exploding into his thoughts still echoed through his system. Fiske was under no illusions about his physical condition. He was now incredibly weak in body and mind, the year of torture and deprivation draining him as nothing else could. If he had been able to he would have called others of his kind to aid him long ago, but his mental powers had been all but stilled on that first day the men took him. In his current condition for his contact with Vespera to be as strong as it was a blood exchange must have taken place and although he knew how he had acquired hers, his mind was racing as to how she had obtained his and the conclusions he was reaching were horrific.

For almost a year they had been draining his blood, foolishly he had thought it was only to keep him weak and compliant, but now, with this new bond, that had all changed. His blood now flowed through her there was no other explanation for the strength of their bond and the men that held him must have put it there. They had been using his blood, Carpathian DNA, on Vespera for reasons unknown, the side effect of which had been to partially bind him to his mate. Fiske did not even entertain the thought that this had happened by anything other than chance, the men that were holding him had not put him though all they had as part of a pairing exercise, there was some darker motive to their experimentations that he had not yet discovered.

In the back of his mind Fiske sensed Angel stir under his compulsion. It seemed that Vespera was not the only inmate of the compound on which his captors had been experimenting. The link with Angel was by nature different than the bond with his life mate, a tie on which he had draw in desperation to aid Vespera. Fiske felt no remorse for using Angel, for a human she was incredibly strong and a fighter by nature, as Fiske could not leave his cell to defend Vespera the red head made a suitable alternative bodyguard.

To allow her to function Fiske had taken any semblance of pain, both physical and mental, away from Angel's mind but now he felt the memory of a horrendous event begin to surface threatening to rouse her from her docile state. The experience seemed so central to the woman's psyche that her whole persona streamed out from that one point. In his own mind he caught a sense of falling, of thickening blood and wide eyes, anger, loss and terrible pain. Before the memory could fully form Fiske sent a command to Angel that both reassured and reasserted his dominance and felt the woman settle again. He did not pry further, he would do the woman no more harm than necessary in Vespera's protection. Fiske had no doubt that his life mate would not approve of his actions regarding her coerced guardian, he felt the shape of Vespera's mind already, her values, her beliefs, but in reality he had no choice, he would destroy the world itself if it meant his mate's safety.

Through Angel's eyes he watched the cells occupants sit lost and silent against the cold concrete walls. At the moment they posed neither him nor his mate any threat but an air of disquiet was beginning to grow amongst them. They had seen two of their own turn into blood crazed monsters before their eyes, there was no telling who would turn next. Many were watching the motionless figure of Serenity cradled on one of the bunks, the only one of the group who had not yet gained consciousness, with trepidation. Others captives were crowding closer to Angel than even the restricted cell made necessary, her recent actions singling her out as a source of protection.

The atmosphere after the guards' departure was tense and anxious. Fiske watched the group for a long while. There was no telling how the influx of Carpathian blood would affect them, his race's genetic mix was strong imprinting itself over human DNA with predatory speed. Three blood exchanges was all it took to turn a human into a Carpathian but the process was fraught with danger. Over the centuries Carpathian males desperate to find their life mates would sometimes try to turn human females, the subject would often go mad and become vampires unable to cope with the change. Something else was happening here, the creatures that had killed the soldier were not as he would expect if they had only turned from taking Carpathian blood, they were too raw, too bestial lacking the preservation instincts of even the most unskilled of vampires. The way they had honed in on Angel's blood, preferring it to the kill they had already brought down, it disturbed him greatly.

Vespera stirred in her sleep and Fiske once more entered her mind to soothe her. Already he felt the tiny changes in her mind and his own, chemical changes brought about by the physical presence of their blood in each other's bodies. He yearned for her physical presence now, his body sated only faintly by his recent taste of her. Fiske knew instinctively that the yearning would only become more powerful as their separation continued. He would become more dangerous the longer their bond remain incomplete, especially to her, the one thing he would seek relentlessly even if he turned. Only the ritual words and mating would stop the darkness within him completely and he was uncertain how long he much longer he could endure his isolation now he had found her. There were also the soldiers to be considered, Melville would be looking for revenge and his mate would be a perfect target. How much longer could he keep their bond a secret as his mind began to fail? He lay still in the cooling darkness, unsure how much longer he would be left before his captors lost patience and began their sadistic retribution, and more terrifying still unsure whether even Angel's presence would keep Vespera safe now that events had began to develop in the adjacent chamber.


	6. Chapter 6

"They can't keep us here." Tyron paced back and forth clearing the width of the entire cell in a few quick strides. On the bunk Sophia wiped her sister's brow with a tiny piece of ripped blanket, she didn't even bother to look up. The man seemed to her a blowhard, any response only encouraged his ranting. He had been the first to break the silence of the cell and now, several hours later, Tyron was still going over the same old arguments.

To her left Bow shifted his position on the floor. He had not moved far from the spot taken during the soldiers entrance, close to Serenity's motionless form. Sophia did not know how to feel about this new entrant to her little circle, especially his interest in her sister whom now and again she would see him glance at with almost reverent tenderness. Her emotions felt tangled and raw, worry for her sister, fear at their surroundings and an unfamiliar sense of attraction for the tranquil and slightly grungy figure of Jordan who sat on the adjacent bunk tapping out guitar chords with his fingers. Sophia could feel the heat from his body as he lounged next to her, their shoulders almost touching. It sent goose bumps up and down her arms.

At the other end of the room Tryst still sat almost foetal like at Angel's feet her wide fearful eyes darting between the pacing figure of Tyron, Sophia's small group and the motionless figure of Angel. To Sophia the pampered woman looked too helpless to be genuinely distressed and she suspected the woman had come here on some latest fad treatment rather than in the state of desperation she and Serenity had. She clung to the sheets of the bunk like some princess awaiting rescue and, Sophia noted with dismay, had managed to edge one perfectly formed shoulder out of the scrubs neckline so the garment hung more like some fashion item than the prison uniform it was.

"What time do you think we eat?" She turned to find Jordan looking straight at her, she wondered how on earth he managed to have such a playful smile on his lips even now. Words failed to come and instead she went back to stroking her sister's hair blushing furiously. Bow shifted on the floor beneath them.

"Whenever they feel like feeding us." His voice was far more gravelly than his sinewy form would have implied and he spoke little, these being the first words he had uttered since sitting down near them. Tyron watched them with undisguised distain.

"How can you think of food at a time like this?"

"Because I'm hungry." Laughed Jordan stretching out on the bunk. Sophia almost jumped out of her skin as she felt him lean on her shoulder, his warmth and scent seeping through her. Tyron snorted, grinding his teeth.

"Damn hippy, damn you and your stomach. We should be thinking of ways to get out of here."

"And what do you suggest?" retorted the musician languidly. "Burrowing through the walls with a teaspoon, cutting through the bars with a nail file? We're stuck in here for a while, there's no point working yourself up over it." Tyron's face went almost purple.

"No point working myself up." Jordan nodded.

"Pick a bunk, catch some sleep."

"What and wake up with some...demon ripping my throat out." Snapped the businessman. Tryst let out a nose like a frightened deer her eyes creeping open another centimetre.

"No one else is going to turn into one of those...things, are they." She bleated. Sophia almost bit her lip, she had always hated woman like that. Barbie dolls that with one flap of their eyelids could make men jump through hoops for them, it made her sick to her stomach. Tyron sneered at Tyrst.

"What you don't think that was the last of it do you? You heard the tattooed freak show over there. The monsters all had numbers of them, just like us...and not all of us have come back into the world of the living yet." Tyron licked his lips nervously staring at the unconscious form on the bunk, his eyes looked fever bright. "...we should put her out of her misery before we're trapped in here with another one of those monsters."

Sophia lunched herself at Tyron managing a single blow to his face before Jordan dragged her off and wrapped both arms around her shaking form. In the background Tryst began screaming hysterically. Bow sprang to his feet, he grabbed the portly businessman by the throat and pinned him against the wall. Bow snarled.

"Even think that again and I promise you will wish those things had got hold of you. Understand." Tyron nodded awkwardly, his face fearful.

"Stop it all of you. Bow put him down." Vespera was sitting awake and upright on her bunk a steely look on her face, beside her Angel stood stalwartly, watching the proceedings with emotionless eyes. Bow let go, leaving the man to fall to the floor coughing. Vespera stood shakily, holding Angel's arm for support.

"Do you want to bring the guards back in here? As if we didn't have enough problems."

"I won't let you hurt her." Sophia quavered her voice muffled by Jordan's shoulder. "You can't she hasn't done anything wrong." Vespera's face softened in an instant, she reached out and laid a comforting hand on the woman's back.

"No one's going to hurt your sister Sophia I promise. If she was going to attack us she would have done so when the others...changed. She's just taking longer to come round than we did, that's all." Sophia sniffed, her whole face looked strained with worry. Jordan pulled her back into the nook of his shoulder.

"It will be ok." He whispered into her hair. "She'll be fine and we'll get out of here you'll see."

"Is she coming back then?" It was Tryst's voice, the woman had a puzzled look on her face.

"What do you mean?" Vespera asked slowly. Tryst looked up at her vacantly.

"Well she's not in her bed, is she?" Sophia frantically pushed herself away from Jordan's embrace.

"Oh no, not now. Serenity!" They turned to look. The bunk were Sophia had been sitting with her sister was empty save a few ruffled blankets, there was no sign of the unconscious woman. Serenity was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

"She can't just have vanished into thin air." Tyron grunted still rubbing his neck. Bow strode over and glanced in the tiny toilet cubicle. Sophia sat crumpled up on the bed, Jordan next to her and Tryst continued to stare doe eyed between the silent figures. Bow's brief agitated search revealed nothing, wherever Serenity was now, she wasn't in the cell.

Vespera resisted the urge to tear up the mattresses and peer under the blankets. Her thoughts spun wildly, the girl had definitely been with them only moments before. The soldiers hadn't been in the room and removed her, the door was still as firmly closed as it had been on her first awakening, so where had she gone.

"You won't find her." Sophia's voice was almost a whisper, filled to bursting with despair and anguish. Jordan rubbed her arm soothingly holding her to him.

"She has to be in here somewhere you'll see." He reassured her, Sophia shook her head tears in her eyes.

"No...She's gone."

Vespera sense the woman's pain opening up before her, felt the fear and confusion bloom against the numb medley of the group's emotion and spill out into the room. She crouched next to Sophia as beside her Angel followed her every move.

"What do you mean gone Sophia? Do you mean hiding?" Vespera asked trying to control her own sense of rising panic. Sophia looked up her eyes sparkling even in the darkness of the cell, her voice was a near whisper.

"She disappears sometimes I told you, locks, doors, walls, even restraints do nothing. It's like the normal boundaries of the world don't exist to her, its why we came here, so she could be treated."

"But how..." Jordan started, Sophia bit back a sob.

"I don't know, I never see it actually happen, one minute she's there the next she's not. Later she comes back, sometimes right where she started like she's never moved a muscle, but there's mud on her feet or twigs in her hair or she comes back with souvenirs like a napkin from some restaurant across town or a paper from three counties away. "

Tyron snorted.

"Bull crap, people don't just disappear." Sophia ignored him and looked pleadingly at Vespera.

"She has to come back, we have to make her, it's not safe out there for her. She can't look after herself properly without help and those monsters, what if she walks right into a pen with them and..." Her voice trailed off into heavy silence, unable to intone the last unspeakable thought into words. Vespera took Sophia's hands and squeezed them tight.

"We'll find your sister, don't worry it's going to be ok." Her voice was calm but her mind whirled.

"_You are troubled." _The sultry voice filled Vespera's mind once again weaving through her own thoughts. She instinctively tried to block the alien presence from her psyche, and stopped as she realised the extent of the invasion. Even with her considerable abilities this new consciousness was formidable, to stop it would be like trying to dam the ocean. She felt no malice from her interloper, no threat, indeed the presence was almost a placating force but the sheer power behind it was overwhelming. For the first time since she had first heard the voice fear began to surface in her mind.

"_Who are you?" _Her own demanding question sounded odd in her head. The voice hesitated momentarily.

"_I am Fiske... I am yours."_ The fervency of this statement threw her utterly. The voice was a fiery passionate whisper that sent hot shivers down her spine and scored lines her ribs. Her mind whirled as Fiske's voice came again.

"_Yours...as you are mine_."

His words seemed to cut through her, score into the deepest parts of her mind bringing with them a chill that froze the flames of ardour in an instant. Vespera could see the outline of Fiske's thoughts read his emotions, he did not try to hide his desire for her, a desire that verged on the savage, more need than want. But the ferocity of his fervour was frightening, made more so by his raw overwhelming strength, he was so deeply imbedded in her mind that if he wished he could make her submit to him even against her will.

"_Never little one."_ His voice came to her filled with horror. _"While I can still choose, I will never subject you to such a thing" _She felt something caress the small of her back, his purely psychic touch meant as a reassurance that once more sent flames curling over her skin. She could almost smell him on the air, a hot spicy scent mixed with earthen tones that made her senses spin and dance. His voice came again softly.

"_When we meet in the flesh little one you will want me as much as I need you now, that is a promise my Heart." _

Vespera almost laughed at the certainly in his voice, the fear within her dwindling with his assurances. Why she seemed so inclined to trust this stranger in such hostile surroundings was a mystery to her. Maybe it was because of the strength of his feelings for her, or perhaps because of the situation she found herself in where even an unknown voice was a comfort. Perhaps it was the strange connection she felt between them, something she had longed for in her long years along with her gift, a voice in the darkness of her mind. The anxiety of the long hours in the cells seemed to dissipate and in this place of pure thought and emotion her spirits seemed to revive.

"_You think you're that good looking do you?"_ She teased him gently, surprised that she had fallen so naturally into this strange way of communicating. For a moment there was silence and then his response came slowly back to her.

"_Once... but no longer."_

Vespera felt the raw edge of Fiske's emotion, sensed a buried fear that she would not accept him. Clumsily she had stumbled into a vulnerable area of his psyche and unwittingly wounded him. She remembered the few moments she had been out of the cell with the soldiers, the unnatural cry from the adjacent room, the General's description of the monster within. She could sense Fiske's watching her intently, his focus almost predatory in its intensity, his entire focus on her. His thoughts were numerous and disjointed, circling round her like storm clouds. When it came again Fiske's voice sounded too steady, the calm before the tempest.

"_I am as you heard the General say, a monster of legend to your kind." _Vespera seemed to stop breathing, his mind was so still. He continued his voice was flat but she could feel his emotions laced with hurt and with an edge of steel.

"_I am a Carpathian, an ancient creature who takes blood to live, who shies from sunlight and sleeps in the cool breast of the earth. I have killed more times than I can remember, but only when killing was necessary, on that I give you my word. I have survived for millennia, survived as others fell into bloodlust, survived the near extinction of my kind, survived the colourless flow of the centuries...waiting for you. Waiting for you to bring light to the darkness of my existence. "_ Vespera felt his presence all around her, felt the weight of his mind in her thoughts as his voice continued.

"_Yes to your kind I am a monster little one, but you will want me regardless."_

The world seemed to stop. He was waiting for her reaction to him, almost waiting for a response to his assertion, as if it had been more question that statement.

"_Yes."_ She answered, surprised with the intensity of her own feelings for him and shocked with her acceptance of his strange outburst as reality.

"_Yes I will want you regardless."_ Even as she said it she knew it to be true.

The storm within him seemed to steal away in an instant, pushed back to the boundaries of his mind. Fiske's voice spilled forth, the words oddly ritualistic yet intimate as if he were reading from verse printed on his soul. Vespera listened spellbound as his words ebbed and flowed around her.

"_I claim you as my lifemate. I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul, and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate, bound to me for eternity and always in my care."_

She felt the connection between them assert itself again, as if the thread joining their two souls had added another stitch. Vespera knew now that in the darkness that surrounded them both within and without neither of them would have to face it alone again.


	8. Chapter 8

Fiske raged within himself, how could he have been so foolish. He had tried with every ounce of strength remaining to suppress the ritual and failed. He could still, feel his mouth moving over the words as if in a dream, almosttaste the syllables on his lips. He should not have bound her to him so hastily when their fates were still undecided. He could die at the hands of his captors or turn to the darkness even now, for her to have to endure that was an unbearable prospect. But her acceptance of him, her gentle soul and almost blind acquiescence of the bond that they shared had drawn the words from him like a moth to a flame. There had been no choice and now they would both have to bear the consequences.

"_What's wrong?"_ Vespera's voice came to him melting through his fury, calming his soul as no other in existence could. He marvelled at how easily she could turn him from the darkness within him, how much more bearable the fury was when he could feel her presence. He let the anger and pain drain from him, concentrated solely on her.

"_Nothing little one, not any longer. I seem to recall earlier it was I who asked you a similar question my Heart. Are you still troubled?" _

With a start Vespera remembered Serenity. She forced herself to concentrate on the disappearing girl. Immediately Fiske thoughts seemed to merge with her own absorbing the information as if he had experienced it first hand, she felt his mind working with extraordinary speed, a hunter with a new scent to follow.

Slowly he explored the other pathways in his mind, links to others who had imbibed his blood. He ignored the men and concentrated on the females. There was the gentle turning of Angel's mind still docile as she watched over Vespera in the other cell, another cold and calculating watched the occupants of the cell with opportunistic eyes. The raw pain of Sophia's thoughts screamed out to him like a beacon, her frantic anxiety wiping out all other emotions in her mind.

At the edge of these thoughts a tiny whisper of an individual seemed to sit right on the edge of consciousness. Fiske explored this new path tentatively, aware of how fragile this psyche seemed. There was a flash of images, something baleful in the air, and then the new connection faded.

In the darkness Fiske's voice came again still patient but with a harder edge to it this time.

"_Serenity is in a corridor, somewhere in the complex above. She is unharmed."_

Relief flowed like a balm through Vespera at his words. She had not realised until that moment how attached she had become to the small group in the cell, how their situation tied them together, almost a brethren of circumstance.

"_You can find people just like that?" _She said astonished at this new talent.

"_I am by nature a hunter. A blood link with my quarry makes the search easier." _Fiske replied flatly.

"_Can you call her back to us, is that something you can do?" _Vespera asked. Fiske gave the mental equivalent of a head shake.

"_In normal circumstances I could make her return. However her mind is delicate, this ordeal has pushed her passed her already tenuous hold on the physical world I am unsure she could endure my presence without further damage to her mental state . There is something else as well, another presence in halls above, something..."_

Fiske seemed suddenly distracted, his mind distanced itself from hers for a brief moment.

"_Fiske!" _She cried out fearfully, seeking his mind once more as the contact between them wavered briefly. The connection bloomed momentarily again, Fiske's voice came back to her, it sounded abruptly tired and worn.

"_Soldiers are coming, they will not spare your group more than a brief glance. Calm the sister, the woman Angel is already creating a false figure under the blankets. They must not know Serenity has gone, they will find her and hurt her if they do."_

"_We can shield the bunk from them if they do not look too hard." _Vespera reassured him, then a stray thought struck her. Maybe it was something in the tone of his voice that unsettled her, or perhaps she caught part of his mood from their shared connection she didn't know but she felt uneasy. Already his mind was moving away from her and back into his physical state but she called out to him her anxiety marring her thoughts.

"Fiske, h_ow do you know they won't come in?"_

He hesitated his focus already elsewhere. He seemed unwillingly to confide whatever it was that he knew. She called again.

"_Fiske, please..."_

"_They are coming for me."_ His voice was sharp and edgy, not fearful but with a tint of dread in what was to follow. _"Look to yourself and the others and do not seek my mind while they are with me my Heart, your distress cannot ease the agonies they have in store for me."_

The connection faded, Vespera was left alone in deafening silence, his last words ringing in her thoughts. Whatever the soldiers had in store for Fiske, Vespera knew that waiting for the unidentified torments to cease was going to be torture in itself for her.

She brought herself back into the cell. The room was much the same as she had left it what seemed like a lifetime ago. Angel was half crouched over Serenity's bunk pushing the thin blankets into the shape of a sleeping body. Sophia had crept further into Jordan's arms her face still stained with tears. When she saw Vespera stir she reached forward and gripped her arm fiercely.

"What's Angel doing to my sister's bed, has she gone mad?" Vespera shook her head to try and clear the last remnants of the mental connection. Her mind wanted to go back to Fiske, to shield him against the soldiers and it was hard to hold herself in the room but she needed to make sure Serenity's disappearance went unnoticed and to comfort the remaining prisoners. She focused on Sophia, reaching once more for the calm centre within herself, weaving the tranquillity into her words as she spoke.

"Your sister is ok Sophia, don't ask me how I know we don't have time for an explanation. Soldiers are coming to check on us, if they find out Serenity has gone they will try to find her and hurt her. We have to make sure they don't see the bunk where she was laying."

Sophia nodded her expression docile. Vespera leaned forward and wiped the tear lines from her face. Tyron moved edgily near the door.

"What if they find out what we're doing, we could all be punished for that brat's disappearance. I'm going to tell them, it's better for all of us. Don't try and..." He never got to finish. Bow who had been standing quietly until that moment struck out with snake like speed, catching the portly man in his neck. Tyron fell without another sound. Bow snatched him up and wordlessly dropped him on a nearby bunk before sliding to the floor by the businessman, one hand hovering near Tyron's neck. Bow glanced over at Vespera's shocked expression, he shrugged.

"He's out for a while, won't be saying anything." With that he went back to staring at the wall.

Footsteps started in the corridor outside. Inside the room the cell's occupants tried to arrange themselves as casually as possible. Both Sophia and Vespera tried to shield the blanket dummy's head from the view of the hatch. Jordan and Angel arranged themselves nearby and Bow sat ready to give Tyron another blow to the neck should him come round. Tryst remained still and doe like by the end bunks.

The hatch snapped open with a click, light spilled into the room blinding them. Whether she had grown used to the darkness or the lights outside where particularly bright the shards that spilled into the cell hurt Vespera's eyes to such an extent that she had to cover them with her hands. As suddenly as it had begun the light disappeared again as the hatch snapped shut, leaving them all dazzled and blinking trying to recover their night vision. Vespera held her breath waiting for the door to open, for the soldiers to tear the room apart looking for cell's missing occupant, but nothing happened. As time passed she began to breathe again as relief spilled out of the room's other residents in a wave of warm emotion. Sophia smiled and leaned against the hard wall her hands shaking.

"Serenity better come back soon this time." She whispered, her voice trembling with each word spoken. "I'm not sure I can do that again. I thought I was going to jump out of my skin and run screaming at the door when he opened the hatch."

"Me too." Vespera whispered back. There was commotion outside, the sound of metal on metal and the moving of boots on the hard floor. Then there was silence for a few minutes. Vespera felt cold sweat start on her back. Maybe the men had gone back upstairs, she thought to herself straining for the slightest sound outside, maybe Fiske had been wrong. As more minutes passed in silence her hopes increased.

The screams shattered the darkness like glass, their pitch and intensity seeming to twist sound itself to match its pain. As the others looked at the wall of the adjacent cell in horror, Vespera put her head in her hands and wept as each cry pierced her heart, the other half of her soul lost in torment.


	9. Chapter 9

There was a garden. The girl would always remember it as the secret garden, bright flowers, cool grass green as melon skin and thick old trees that stretched upwards blocking out the grey buildings beyond. Her garden, her special place.

The other children weren't allowed to play behind the big locked gates, with their pinching fingers and mocking smiles. Even her sister didn't follow her in here, right up until the day she came with the court order of guardianship she never knew anyone but Mama Jermaine ever went behind those big gates. Mama Jermaine with arms like rolling pins and a thick stick all the kids knew well. Mama Jermaine who could get eighty francs a week for every child she took into her big grey country house, but who barely spent that a month on the lot of them combined. Mama Jermaine with a mind like a steel trap, a blow like a whip crack and a heart of ice.

The girl remembered the vast dirt yard she'd been led through by the social worker in his big black coat, her sister's sweaty hand gripping hers tightly, small suitcase in one hand. Mama Jermaine had met them on the steps, Mama Jermaine did not like the social workers coming inside.

"Two more for your care Madame Jermaine." Said the man, Mama Jermaine nodded blankly. They had talked briefly as the girls stood in the hot yard, dirt blowing round them in clouds, an old dog dozing regardless in the shade of the yard's wall. The conversation came back to her as the man prepared to go.

"The older one is a bright spark, she'll need plenty to occupy her." The social worker beamed at her sister before turning back to Mama. "The little one is...I'm afraid, a bit simple. But I'm sure she'll cope well."

Later in the long dormitory the girl had asked her sister what the man had meant. Her sister was hiding things from the suitcase in the lumpy mattress before the other children came to bed.

"It's the same as when Mother said you were special, 'cept not as nice way of putting it." Said her sister stuffing a photo book into a gap in the stitching. The girl asked when their Mother was coming to get them. Her sister stiffened.

"She's not, she's dead." Was the only reply.

Years went by, they grew up. The girl learnt to disappear first to the fields beyond the grey walls of the house, then to the cool lush oasis that was Mama Jermaine's private garden. They grew up more as more years passed and one day she found her sister packing.

"I'm sixteen tomorrow." Her sister told her. "They won't pay Mama Jermaine to keep me anymore. I'm leaving to find a job and a house."

"Can't I come now." The girl asked as her sister pulled long forgotten objects from the mattress.

"They won't let you, not yet. I'm going to see if I can get custody of you, it means you'll be allowed to come live with me." Her sister looked at her.

"You must be good and don't get into trouble. If they think you are trouble they'll make you stay here, they won't let me take care of you. You understand." The next day her sister was gone.

More time passed and as it went on Mama Jermaine began to write long letters and watch the girl more closely. It became hard to go anywhere or do anything. She took to sitting on the front steps and watch the long road passed the iron gates and thought longingly of her sister far away and the garden.

One day, when the heat was such that she longed to sit underneath the cool trees, Mama Jermaine took her by the arm and led her through the dirt yard to the big locked gates of the garden, she unlocked it and pushed her through.

"This is my garden." Mama told her. "I am going to grow vegetables in here. I want you to pull up all the flowers in these beds and pile them behind you." With that the girl was left alone. The flowers gleamed at her in the sunlight, the trees whispered to her. She wrapped a hand around one slender stem and felt the flower tremble under her touch. Her sister had told her not to cause trouble and she didn't want to be disobedient but the flower bobbed up and down in fear as she clasped the stem. In the sunlight and shade of her secret garden the girl and her simple mind made their own decision.

When Mama Jermaine lead two social workers and her sister through the gate an hour later the flowers waved at them happily from the beds. She watched Mama Jermaine's face turn purple from her cool spot under the trees.

"It seems." Said the man in the same black coat he had worn all those years before. "That the girl is not quite the disturbed creature you describe Madame Jermaine. The garden to me seems quite intact."

It was barely an hour later when her sister strapped her into the car and they set off down the lane away from the old grey house, from the staring children and Mama Jermaine and her stick.

"She didn't want to let you go you know." Said her sister as their car made its own dust clouds rise up from the lane. "She wrote these long reports on how bad you were. She didn't want to lose the money they paid her."

"I wasn't bad." The girl said quietly.

"I know." Said her sister as the car rushed them onwards. There was silence for a while. Her sister spoke first. "Listen my company are very pleased with me, they want to send me to one of their branches abroad. I only have a flat now but if we go the job has a house with it." The girl thought for a while.

"Does the house have a garden?"

"Yes." Said her sister. "A big one and parks nearby too."

"I like gardens." Said Serenity quietly as the car sped onwards through the heat and dust.

There was a garden here too. Not as grand as Mama Jermaine's in her foster home all those years ago but Serenity sat in the scrubby bushes, grass and weed ridden pots outside the window of the complex staring at the space as if it were the palace gardens of Versailles. It was dark too but such boundaries had never meant much to her after the stone walls and gates of her childhood. A rabbit was feeding on the scrubby grass nearby and she watched it too for a while.

There had been halls and corridors in the building inside, dimly lit glass pens which hadn't interested her and rooms of men she had avoided. Up here the construction looked a bit like a hospital, Serenity had been in plenty of those as she had got older, but the wards were empty and the building didn't feel sleepy, it felt dead.

She picked the dead grass and platted it between her fingers lazily. She would go back soon, her sister worried far too much for her to be gone long, and now another, a man, would worry for her safety outside his care. She had woken with his black hair against her forehead and felt his presence under her skin, in part of her mind. She knew without questioning that she belonged with him as previously she had belonged among the flowers and grass of the secret garden. These simple truths were known to her outside the complexities that dictated them. Her love for her sister beat at her, but it did not tie her or complicated the new relationship as it may have with others, as in the garden all those years ago with her hand around the flower stem her choice was so simple as to be nonexistent.

But the outdoors called to her, its presence like a living part of her still and she lingered up here, away from the glass pens and the unknown darkness she had woken in. Eventually voices drifted out from an open window behind her, there was the stench of smoke.

"He still breathing Doctor." The man's voice was rough and full of cold hatred, Serenity sat still behind the dying bushes. A second older voice chimed in.

"He will live General. The treatment was...harsher than I would have wished ideally but..."

"That damn vampire has to be shown the consequences of his actions. I can't have my arm ripped out of its socket every time I set foot in the enclosure."

"Understood General. I should also point out that I was against using the isolated genes to treat your wound."

"It's healed it though. I've been strapped up for months without that little miracle to assist me. Now it barely twinges."

"A great advancement for both our soldiers and medicine I'm sure...as long as there are not any side effects."

"Side effects! I've never felt more alive. Don't be so frightened this new science Doctor. Speaking of which, how's the livestock progressing down there."

"The latest two batches as normal, reasonable losses comparatively speaking."

"And did you figure out what when wrong with 27." There was a pause.

"It seems one of the technicians did not mix the splicing agent with the raw blood mix on several of the subjects. There is no guarantee that the target RNA will have been replaced with our own preparation in the second stage."

"Should we wipe the entire batch Doctor?"

"Our benefactor says no. You'll remember that several of our most interesting subjects have been taken from that batch. He is most interested to see how the rest progress."

"As he wishes." Serenity stirred under the window, she wanted to return badly now. She found the conversation confusing and the air was beginning to feel contaminated, like something foul was stirring in the space nearby.

" On a similar subject however General this news should please you."

"Really."

"Our DNA profile of the vampire is complete. A few more days of testing we can correctly replicate his blood and I think we can dispense with his services for good." There was harsh laughter from the window.

"Doctor you have made my year. I have some whiskey I've been saving for an occasion, and I think you've just provided one."

"General, really I don't drink on..."

Serenity listened to the voices disappear. As the garden became still once more she faded into the background until only the flattened grass showed she'd ever been present. She didn't see the darkness close over the spot where she'd sat, making the grass move despite the still air. Shadow within darkness brushing over the dead grass and the stench of the grave mugging the air.


	10. Chapter 10

He had named her. The Weeping woman, with her prayers and tears had called her Angela but it never stuck.

"Angel." He called her and Angel took. He made her paper birds in the back alleys when Rage tore the house apart screaming for money and the Weeping woman shook and clutched her hands together. Angel would watch the birds fly above the grey roofs and into clear skies above, and he would pick her up and swing her round until she felt she was following them. When the house was too dangerous to go back for dinner they went to the chippy and she counted the money out for him on the big counter so the man couldn't short change him.

Sometimes they slept in the shop porch when it was cold and the Rage still hadn't subsided and they would try to guess where the paper birds had landed. He told her one day she would grow wings and fly to heaven just like a real angel. Later, when he had flown there himself on a tide of blood, she'd had wings inked on her back. Unable to follow him to Heaven she'd tried at least to walk out of Hell. She didn't get all that far.

Her head hurt. She felt like she'd been sleepwalking for hours with weird dreams about fanged monsters and steel bars, about keeping guard over the odd woman with the commanding voice, Vespera. There had been a strange presence in the background of her mind, not malicious, but authoritarian in its purpose. It had faded away now leaving her once more alone with old and painful memories of times past.

Her head really hurt.

She reached up to touch her forehead and felt the blinding sting of parted skin roughened by congealed blood. The sight in one of her eyes seemed blurred, bulging the darkened shapes in the cell like the watchers of a gold fish bowl. She grimaced and withdrew her hand. The wound would heal quicker if she left it alone, her body had mended itself without help many times over the years, now would be no different.

Time seemed to have passed since her last real memory, that of the soldiers and the old man in the lab coat. The room was somehow subdued, its occupants in a dazed state. The man Tyron lay silent on a bunk while next to Angel's hip the woman Vespera seemed to be unconscious, the still figure of Sophia's sister had disappeared, replaced by a cushion dummy she had dim memories of constructing. So her recent dreams may not have been imaginings after all.

Angel unrolled her large frame from the cramped bunk and as an afterthought twitched a thin sheet over Vespera as if feeling the phantom edge of her imposed role as guardian. The sudden moment made the small group jump, at her feet Tryst edged away slightly.

"Soldiers buggered off then." She mused to no one in particular, wondering over to stare once more at the iron door. It remained as defiantly solid as ever.

"You seem better." Smiled Jordan, Angel couldn't help noticing he had his hand entwined with the pretty Sophia's. She rolled her eyes, she could think of better places for a budding romance.

"Must have a hard head." Angel replied casually, always best to be casual, too serious, too intent people would watch you, look to you for something, expect everything. Nobody looked to a drifter for anything, it kept people away, just how she liked it. She was looking at the door again. The hinges were reinforced, but in a strange way as if the door had to be adapted for its purpose. From this side she could do absolutely nothing but if she were on the other side it didn't look as if it would be too much trouble to bash the door inwards. Stupid really, she mused, if she were on the other side of the door she wouldn't be trying to open it in the first place. Her stomach growled at her accusingly, it had been a long time since anyone had bothered to feed her.

"I don't suppose..."She pondered, "Anyone has thrown any food in here since I got thwacked on the noggin."

"No." Replied the Jordan smiling. "I won't come back to this hotel again, I don't think much of the room service."

"I have food." It was a small voice, shaky as if unused, from an unobserved corner of the cell. Sophia was on her feet in seconds as nearby the dark haired Bow uncoiled like a spring.

The slight frame of Serenity seem to wave in and out of the darkness like a wrath. In her arms she held a small cache of bread and fruit. Sophia grabbed her sister and dragged her further into the cell sending food spilling onto the hard floor.

"Where were you Serenity I was worried sick? Are you ok, are you hurt?" Sophia's voice told of all the meddle of emotions from the past hours. Serenity seemed to shrink back from her sister's intensive stare.

"I was in the garden." She said in a voice that was hardly above a whisper.

"And the food Serenity, where did you get the food?" Sophia snapped back, as if trying to catch her sister out.

"There was a kitchen...He was hungry."

"Who?" Said Sophia puzzled.

"You're hurting her." Bow moved forward now. The edge to his voice made Sophia move back as if stung, Jordan suddenly beside her as if sensing her uncertainty.

Serenity moved towards the dark haired stranger without hesitation or fear. She held her head as if expecting to be kissed and Bow did not disappoint taking her mouth as a starving man takes bread. Sophia tried to move forward towards her sister but both Jordan and Angel held her back. Something in the group had changed, a new factor which they all sensed, this union was something not to be disturbed.

The lovers parted, Bow still with his arms wrapped around the still figure of Serenity. Their kiss had been so violent there was blood on her lips but she was smiling as if the holder of some inner joy withheld to her until that moment.

"You will not leave me again without permission." Bow's voice was low and husky, the kiss having awoken a wealth of feeling he could not yet satisfy. "You will promise me."

"I promise." Serenity's voice came back stronger than it had ever been. Sophia's world seemed to hover in and out, never had she expected this. Only a week ago she had seen her and her sister's future stretch out into the long years ahead and now all that had been shattered in a single moment by a man she knew nothing about.

"Let's hope some of this is still edible." Angel's voice broke the silence. The giant figure bent down and scooped an errant roll from the rough floor and into her mouth in one movement. Just as quickly she gagged, dropping the bread to the floor once more.

"It's like sawdust." Angel moaned, coughing out the crumbs. "What're they making the bread from these days' brick?"

Nearby Tryst, who had delicately picked up an apple from the dropped hoard, emitted shrill whine and let the fruit drop back to the floor.

"It tastes odd, I can't swallow." She rolled the doe like eyes up to the rest of the group. "It's poison isn't it."

The rest of the food was inspected. It all seemed edible enough in smell and texture, but not one of them could swallow a mouthful without retching.

"This isn't right." Said Sophia dropped a roll back on the floor. "The food's fine. We know something's been done to us while we slept, but why is it preventing us eating, surely they don't want us to starve to death?"

No-one answered her. Angel had gone back to her bunk and once more was scratching the number on her wrist. All she could think about was the hallway of disfigured hands, the way the creatures in the cell had honed in on blood...and how hungry she had felt when the wayward drops of crimson liquid had formed on Serenity's lips.


	11. Chapter 11

Blood swam around the senses adding iron tang accents to the sea of pain his mind was currently swimming in. The stench in his nostrils and on his tongue was enough to excite the hunting instinct in his starved body, bringing his highly tuned senses into full alert before his weary mind could stop them. Agony blossomed within him dragging his battered soul back into full possession of his torn frame once more. He could still sense the blood all around him but Fiske knew it was would not quench his thirst. It was his own.

His skin and the floor below him was soaked dark crimson, it dripped from tears in his flesh he was far beyond able to heal, and seeped beneath him. His milky eyes wept red and his skin was like that of a man burnt alive.

'_She had stayed with him.'_

That thought alone turned his stomach and lifted his soul all at once. Despite his instruction to leave, once the pain began he had sensed her there with him, calling him to her drawing him away from the attentions of his tormentors towards the quiet place in her soul. She had created a haven for him within herself and in so doing so shared what had been done to him body and soul, bearing it with him and shielding him where she could.

'_She had stayed with him.'_

Hesitantly he sought her mind, almost afraid of what he would find. She reached for him at once, light to his darkness, as he was night to her day.

"_I am light am I?" _Her voice was coy and playful, free of the horrors they had born. She weaved in and out of his thoughts taking him back into their own private world away from the agonies of his physical state.

"_My Heart, you are as bright as the stars themselves." _He replied, his thoughts forming sluggishly within him. His mind drifted with hers for a while, even the energy of thinking too much for him. When he surfaced within himself he could feel the blood drying on his skin, the wounds in his flesh still open, the burns raw with pain.

"_You are very badly injured aren't you?"_ Vespera's thoughts rose with him. He didn't reply. She could feel the ebb and flow of him as if they were of one body, she would know the answer.

"_You...you need the earth to heal. Your wounds..."_ She tailed off. Fisk stirred himself.

"_I am starving and have been too long outside the earth to heal. These wounds will no longer mend. I am dying." _He felt the despair rise like a wave within her, and then her resolve slam it back down. There were things she needed to know, things he had to tell her. They had not yet mated, perhaps she could survive him, with the help of his people.

"_There are things you must know before I am too weak. When I die..."_

"_You're not dead yet." _Her voice came back like a whip crack. _"All we have to do is get you out of here and into the soil..."_

"_You must listen to me you have been changed, not just as my blood has changed the others, our connection will mean my loss will affect you more than..."_

"_Your blood? Your blood did something to us, the others. The blood connection you spoke of earlier."_

"_They have been draining my blood for months. They have used it on you, I do not know for what purpose or why I feel a connection with your group and not with those other that have come before you, with the monsters that attacked you in your cell."_

Fiske felt her mind working, felt her unspoken need for all he knew about what had been done to them. He gave her what information he could, he did not pretend to hold all the answers. Vespera was patient, she listened to his thoughts without interruption and waited for him to rest when he became too tired to continue. When he had finished she was quiet for a period.

"_Genetic engineering." _She mused after a while. _"You said the monsters we saw where neither one thing nor the other, they were not what you had expected if they had gone crazy from the blood."_

"_No." _Fiske replied _"Their behaviour, their appearance. I have never before encountered anything like them. I do not understand genetic engineering."_ Vespera started.

"_What, where have you been for the past decade Fiske?" _

"_Hunting vampires in the wilds of Europe. I have not seen the need to interact with humanity for the past fifty years or so."_

"_I can see you are going to have some catching up to do when we get out of here." _Vespera laughed.

"_Blood contains DNA, a set of instructions that tell your body what it is. If Carpathian blood was broken down into a sequence of DNA code additional code could have been added. More instructions to the body like longer teeth, different colour hair etc, could have been included."_

"_Including the preference for certain types of blood?" _ Vespera gave a mental shrug.

"_If they could find DNA instructions to add in from somewhere, I don't think they could manufacture such things from scratch."_ Fiske was silent for moment, Vespera's thoughts continued apace.

"_Something went wrong with us, our 'batch'. The Doctor said we weren't progressing as expected, I think we should have turned into those creatures we saw by now. What if the pure Carpathian blood has bonded more than the added code, what if we have become more like you than the monsters they wanted us to become?" _Fiske stirred.

"_It would explain certain things..." _Vespera's mind surged ahead.

" _If we are showing some of your species traits we might be able to turn it to our advantage before they know what's happening. We could get you out of here before...before."_ She trailed off.

Fiske was silent. Vespera could feel his mind working slowly as his exhaustion took its toll. Something dark was lurking in his thoughts.

"_Fiske, what's wrong?"_ Fiske's thoughts turned.

"_I know where they obtained the extra code from." _He said slowly. _"There is a vampire nearby."_


	12. Chapter 12

The Complex, as those stationed there called it, was an iceberg with more subterranean depths than the nondescript buildings on the surface hinted at. At any one time the surface buildings could be rearranged into anything from a hospital to music school depending on what trappings were needed to lull its victims to sleep in a strange place but the underground world beneath never changed. The first few floors of processing, and solider living quarters were dwarfed in comparison to the transformation suites and holding pens where the Doctor and his staff worked their own brand of warped magic. The lower levels were another story, the Sanctum, a place where even the General only ventured when invited.

The entry door was more something from a medieval castle than the steel architecture of the complex above, all oak and iron blackened by age. Beyond the historical panache continued, stonework, dark beams and silk tapestries where in abundance. Furniture was in the same style as the construction but sparse in the corridors and General Melville had never been in the rooms beyond, his benefactor had been most instant on that fact.

Melville stopped as he entered the audience chamber. This room above all others, even the Doctors laboratories, amazed him. His benefactor had built it himself, as he had the entire complex, but whereas those chambers above had been built for Melville and the Doctors requirements, the chamber was something almost church like in appearance. High vaulted ceilings stretched above the circular room with its many corridors leading away into the darkness, bright artwork from eras past breathed life into the room from each wall, richly woven rugs littered the floor. It was decadence, spender and majesty all in one, the grandeur of times past. His benefactor said he needed something of home about him in this place in another land, another time. The only thing that had been left out where stained glass windows, this far beneath the earth there was no point, and of course the Sanctum could not be built above ground, even the risk of sunlight could not be tolerated.

"You are still in wonder Melville." The General turned sharply at the voice smiling broadly. Albursel stood patiently looking exactly as he had when Melville had met him almost a decade before, black hair loose framing his narrow features and throwing his eyes into sharp relief. His eyes had shocked Melville when they had first met, when Albursel had saved his life and nursed him, explained about the war being fought between Vampires and Carpathians, a war the Carpathians where losing. Now Melville barely noticed them.

Albursel smiled back and glided further into the candlelight, he had on long robes of deep red today which flowed like pools of wine in the dancing light. He handed Melville a glass of whiskey from a nearby counter.

"You have been down here how many times now my friend? And yet every time I find you staring at my hangings like a man deprived of bread." The voice was heavily accented but after so long Melville had no trouble distinguishing the words. He flushed like a schoolboy praised by a favourite teacher.

"I guess I just have hidden depths. The colours always look so bright down here."

"You have an artistic soul my friend. In a different life maybe I would have found you owning a gallery with such pictures all around you. But these are mere reproductions, not a touch on the originals, Carpathian painting is so hard to reproduce. You have to put your heart and soul into the piece, it is the work of a female or a young man and I am neither in these days."

Albursel's smile faded.

"But we are not here to talk about such things. I understand you were injured in your work Melville, I hope it was not serious." Melville's face hardened.

"The creature decided to let off some steam. Did it no good in the end, but left my arm good as useless until I treated it with one of the Doctors latest concoctions."

"He has perfected his serums at last then."

"You know the Doctor, always worried about side effects." Joked Melville hesitantly. "But even he admitted the latest batch is probably as close as we're going to get to completely safe." Albursel's face clouded.

"You must be careful General, the Doctor's mixtures are not to be taken lightly. Carpathian DNA is far from safe even in the minute quantities the Doctor tests." He hesitated as Melville's face fell. "But you seem fit enough after your ordeal. The Doctor was perhaps a little too cautious this time. We will say no more about it."

Melville wet his mouth with the drink, it burned pleasantly as he swallowed. The rebuff was no more than expected, Albursel was always telling them to be careful. His favourite saying was that the line between Carpathian and Vampire was so small two small changes to the DNA sequence they instilled in their subjects was the difference between the army of enhanced Carpathian warriors they wanted and an army of genetically altered Vampires. But today Melville had such good news for Albursel that no minor admonishment would dampen his spirits.

"The Doctor says." He started slowly. "That our profile of the creature upstairs is complete bar a few tests on the replicated blood." Albursel moved across the space between them so fast even Melville was surprised. His fingers were like iron as he gripped the Generals shoulders biting hard into the muscle.

"You mean it my friend. You really mean it. We can soon be rid of that...that thing upstairs." The unworldly eyes burned into Melville's. He nodded smiling trying to ignore the pain in his shoulders.

"Two more days at most, then we can dispose of him."

Albursel grinned in delight the point of his fangs appearing beneath his pale lips. He released the General and seemed to dance around the room for a few seconds.

"My friend, my friend, you do not know how happy you have made me. All this time, ever since that creature came into our little world I have been so worried. Not for me you understand, my life has always been dispensable for our cause, but for my darlings, my precious ones. They have been through so much already, if he were to escape and capture even one of them...Ah it does not bear thinking about." Albursel paused hand over his heart. "I know I should feel sorry for him. He too has suffered. No one knows better than I the struggle between the dark and the light in the souls of my people and how easy it would be after all the centuries alone to give in to the beast within."

"But you still fight it." Piped in Melville, childish once more under the flood of emotion from the man he had venerated for so long. Albursel smilled wearily.

"It is not easy to do so, not even with the help and constant care of my darlings. No we should not admonish him for giving in to his demons, his end when it comes will be swift and merciful. You will leave that to me Melville. He will fight like a wild thing for life, I do not want you hurt again."

There was another pause, Melville fought to find something to say. Again and again Albursel astonished him, the man was irreplaceable and yet he would risk his own life rather than Melville's or any other of his soldiers.

"How is the lady Albursel, has she recovered well?" Albursels face was crossed with clouds for a minute.

"Her name is Rachel Melville, I have always said you should find their names before bringing them to me. There is nothing worse than waking into a new life under the title of whatshername. Yes she is adjusting well, the others are helping her to acclimatise as they always do to the new ones. She will feel better once she knows she is safe here, away from harm and persecution for her gifts. And to answer your unspoken question my friend she is not the one for me. I will keep her safe as I do the others ready for her true life mate, and teach her of our ways, but she is not for me."

Melville's heart sank. Each time he brought a new girl displaying unusual symptoms down here he prayed and hoped that she would be for Albursel, the one to end his eternal search for a life mate. He was too noble to lose to the darkness and Melville was afraid for his friend. He would examine the batches on his return to the complex. It was almost too much to hope there would be more than one girl to take to Albursel when it often went months without finding a single one, but he had to try. Albursel smiled.

"You must not worry for me my friend. The darkness will not find me yet. As I help my darlings they help me, keep me on the straight and narrow. Do not worry so much. Now you must leave me and carry on with your work, your vital work my friend. As for the...the vampire, you will let me know when he is to be dispatched. The moment he is to be dispatched and no later understand, he is too dangerous to keep longer than we have to."

"I will Albursel. I promise." Melville looked up and smiled as he saw himself reflected in the eyes of Albursel. The blood red eyes devoid of all emotion but hate and lust that had scared him so much when he had first seen them. The eyes of a vampire.


	13. Chapter 13

Vespera blinked as she came back to the cell once again. The room which had once seemed so dark was becoming clearer each time she awoke to it. The night was becoming as day for her as it would be for the others. There wasn't much time left, what little plan she had depended on them being able to tolerate the punishing lights Fiske assured them would line every corridor on the way up to the surface. She had talked to him at length about what he knew of the complex above, of the soldiers around them and of the vampire he was certain lay somewhere nearby. He was unconvinced by her escape plan despite her assurances it could work, unwilling for her to take even the smallest risk. His replies had been painfully slow and hesitant and he had insisted that she repeat one point over and over above all else they had discussed.

"_It seems plausible that a vampire would shield this pit from others of my kind. If you get far enough away from here my Heart I am convinced you will be able to contact other Carpathians even if I am...too weak to do so. Call every Hunter you can to this place. Tell my people what to expect and to destroy everything. They will help you and our friends but those creatures and their creators must not survive. They disturb my thoughts like nothing I have experienced before and I am convinced they are meant for the death of us. Repeat to me again my Heart how you are to call my brethren to this place, how to concentrate on calling the ones called Gregori and Aidan renowned Hunters in this land and tell them what has happened here. Tell me again..."_

She had repeated her plan and his instructions again and again until his exhaustion was such that even he did not fight it when she told him to rest.

"_One last thing my Heart before I sleep. Just one I promise then I shall rest. Do not underestimate the General. The vampire will be driven by lust but will know when it is beaten and flee, but Melville has the eyes of a fanatic bent on a righteous cause. He will fight to the death to keep us here and show you no mercy. I know your soul is gentle, I know your feelings on violence my Heart, but with him you must be as steel. If you come across him making your way to the surface you must kill him, or he will destroy us all..."_

She shuddered as she remembered the tone of his words, harsh even through his agonies and fatigue. The thought of killing repulsed her even though she knew she may well have no choice if any of them were to escape the labyrinth above.

The cell had changed since she had last left it. Serenity had come back and instead of returning to her sister she was sitting peacefully in the arms of the man Bow while on an adjacent bunk Jordan and Sophia sat almost in exactly the same pose if a little more wary of their companions. The woman Angel her eyes once more bright had also draped herself over a bunk but was occupied picking bits of food apart and grinding them into dust between her thick fingers as if the pieces of bread had personally offended her. Only Tyron and Tryst sat almost as she had left them, Tyron unconscious and Tryst curled catlike on the hard floor. Vespera blinked and gingerly moved aside the blanket.

"You're back in the land of the living then." Angel said mirthlessly as she tossed the half picked food aside and sat up in one swift movement. "Leave the damn food, we can't eat the stuff."

"No." Said Vespera half to herself. "I don't expect we can."

"You don't sound all that surprised." Sophia said sharply, her nerves frayed by recent events. "What do you expect us to eat?"

"Blood."

The word sent a ripple of shock round the room. All heads turned towards her in alarm the memory of the bloodthirsty creatures still foremost in everyone's minds. Vespera felt the panic begin again flooding the room with its own cold tang. She was too tired to calm them again instead she began to talk filling the uncertainty and fear with the bits and pieces she and Fiske had pieced together. She talked of the complex beyond their walls, of the men who would hurt them, of the lights which would burn them, of their changing bodies and of the creature in the other room whom she loved and his people, of their people. She talked about their new strength, their new minds, and how the hybrid state they were currently cocooned in could save them all.

There was total silence as she spoke. No one seemed even able to draw breath either to approve or denounce her words. The feeling of the room began to change with the beat of Vespera's voice. Something warm started to beat against the overwhelming fear as if the wings of the butterfly of hope trapped in this pandora's box with them had at last began to emerge. The feeling wrapped her within itself encouraging her to speak what just a week ago she would have dismissed as pure imagination.

When the last whisper of her voice died the room was still. Vespera had half expect applause or outright derision to follow her tale, but all was quiet and subdued. The silence was somehow worse not knowing whether these people, strangers who she still knew so little about but whom had become as close as brethren to her, would accept events as she had outlined them or deny a truth so outrageous as the one she had told.

"You haven't told us how we're going to get out of this room." It was Bow, both he and Serenity were watching her intently but trustingly. Vespera's whole body seemed to relax, at least two of the group seemed to believe her. Angel stirred on her bunk.

"The bastards have got to come in at some point." Said the giant stretching her thick arms with intent. "Improved strength and speed you said, I guess we'll find out just how far that goes against those toy guns."

"You seem to be taking this well." Snapped Sophia testily, Jordan pulled her closer to him feeling her calm. Her world had changed so much so quickly she seemed stretched to breaking point. Jordan felt her tension and tried to act as a balance as she felt her world crumble away. He flexed with these winds of changed, refusing to fight against that which he couldn't change, saving his strength for a fight he had a hope of winning. They were earth and air, one grounding the other, the other setting the first free.

"I'm just glad we're not turning into those three fingers corpses besides the human race ain't done much for me to date can't wait to leave the smeggers behind. Plus." Angel said smiling widely. "Those guards are looking more and more like a big mac meal every second."

Sophie giggled in disbelief, she couldn't believe what was happening to them, and what they would have to do survive but there was no doubting Vespera. In the mad world of this twilight prison her words had held a ring of truth Sophia couldn't condemn no matter how she tried.

"What do we do if they manage to shut the door on us." Said Jordan. Angel snorted.

"The lock on that bad boy ain't so tough on the other side. If one person can get out a couple of good kicks would do that sucker for good."

"I don't like the idea of alerting the whole complex to our escape but overpowering the guards seems our only option." Said Vespera warily, the escape from the room was the worst part of her plan. The chance of survival seemed slim if they had the whole facility on them from the second they stepped out of the cell.

"I can do it. I can pass to the other side of the door." Serenity's voice seemed almost ghost like in the darkness of the cell. Bow wrapped his arms further round her.

"We can do it. You can take me with you and you are not leaving me behind again." He said firmly.

"Two will be better, one can take out the bad guys while the other kicks the door in." Agreed Angel nodding her approval.

"No." Said Sophia horrified. "You can't let her she might get hurt."

"We might all get hurt." Sneered Angel. "This ain't going to work if we're not gonna take risks."

"I don't care you can't expect Serenity to fight off guards and kick down a door." Sophia was incensed, even Jordan couldn't calm her.

"Nothing will happen to your sister while I am there." Said Bow his voice steady. "In my old life I fought every day for money, for respect, for the right to live. I came here to get away from fighting but I will fight for her."

"I...I'm meant to take care of her. I have for so long. I...I have to help her." Said Sophia trembling with apprehension.

"Please." Serenity's tiny voice came again as she reached out across the cell for her sister's hand. "Please it's my turn to help you now. I can do this, trust me."

Sophia couldn't speak, all she could do was bow her head and nod silent tears falling to her lap. Vespera watched on feeling the shifting emotions all round the room.

"All we have to decide is when. Now?" said Jordan holding Sophia tightly.

"No." Said Vespera. "We have to wait Tyron wakes up, we cannot carry him all the way to the surface. There is a chance only some of us will make it the whole way, the more people we have mobile the better chance we have of contacting help."

"He better wake up soon then." Said Angel suddenly alert. "Someone's coming."

The light at the open door was only just bearable. Guards swarmed into the room the guns held ready, Vespera could see more in the passage beyond. The Doctor stepped into the room the General hovering eagerly at his heels.

"General I hardly think there will be any more ready at this time. Let them progress a few days before we recheck their development. I need to be setting up the equipment for the next batch of subjects and the men need to be up resetting the hospital facade this is not the moment for pointless time wasting." Snapped the Doctor testily.

"Then stop whining and check them." Growled Melville in a tone that seemed even to surprise the Doctor. "Even the lowliest private follows orders here Doctor. You are not above my authority or as indispensible as you think." A bead of sweat trickled down the Doctors face, the General's eyes almost seemed to glow with anger.

"There's no need to shout." Retorted the Doctor uncertainly. He pointed to Vespera.

"We checked her first." He said to the guards. "And her blood work was interesting. Bring her here."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Angel tense and Vespera gave the woman the smallest shake of her head. They couldn't risk the guards opening fire in this small space they might all be killed. She let the men take her arms and lead her towards the Doctor who was already pulling surgical gloves on as if her flesh would contaminate him. He pulled back her lip and checked her clenched teeth in minute detail. He shone a painful light into her eyes that made her baulk but this seemed to please rather than incense him. After a while he stepped back.

"Well General it seems I must bow to your expertise." Said the Doctor slowly. "This one is showing the first signs of transformation. Would you like me to check to others?"

"No." Snapped the General quickly. "Leave them for later, one will do and as you said we're busy. I'll take her from here."

Vespera gave Angel another tiny shake of the head as the General took Vespera's arm in a grip like iron and pulled her hard out the door. A few seconds later she heard the guards retreat and the door bang shut again. If the others managed to get out she would not be with them and the state Fiske was in he couldn't help her. She felt fear gnaw at her stomach for the first time in what seemed like an age, she didn't know where she was being taken but she didn't think anything in this place would be good.

Melville smiled as he dragged her quickly through the faceless corridors heading always downwards further into the complex and away from the others. Eventually he stopped by a wooden door that seemed more out of a castle than the modern building around it.

"What is your name?" He said pulling her round to face him. His smile verged on the maniacal, it frightened her more than ever the Doctor's emotionless features. She tried not to let the fear and pain show as she faced him, her voice was steady when it came.

"Vespera." She replied slowly. He gave a short high laugh and knocked at the door.

"You see." Said the General as Vespera heard bolts slam back and the hinges grind in protest. "He likes to know who he's welcoming into his home."

Vespera spun round as the door slid back silently to reveal two eyes burning like crimson fires in the darkness beyond. In the shadows something beckoned her forward and as Melville pushed her through the door there was no option to refuse. The door closed silently behind her trapping her in an underground tomb with something far more deadly than the facility above. She had found the vampire and more portentously it had found her.


	14. Chapter 14

Guard duty was Frank's least favourite jobs, especially on this floor with what the small army had come to know as 'the Beast'. It wasn't so much talked about now but at the beginning many of the men said that you could feel the thing watching you through the steel and if you were brave enough you could look through the viewing hatch and see those ancient eyes burn into yours for a second before you turned away or threw on the punishing lights in cell. This story felt like one of those legends that get circulated in the first few weeks of any new posting but Frank knew it too be true. He'd felt that stare through the door himself and opened the hatch to see those milky grey eyes burning back at him and slammed the metal shut as if that could block out the stare. A man could go mad having to endure that on his own but on guard duty you were never on your own.

On the other side of the hall sat Staffie Johnson, named after the dogs he idolised for their killer instinct. The man was a nut, but it was better than being down here alone if only just. Frank watched as Staffie's hand lazed near the alarm button, he was meant to keep it covered at all times but Frank didn't say anything to correct him. Being down here with a pissed off and armed Staffie was almost as bad as being shoved into one of the holding pens upstairs with a cut and besides, the vamp behind the metal door was in no state to cause any trouble.

"What time does the next shift come down Frankie boy." Asked Staffie in a low drawl. Frankie looked at his watch.

"Two hours, the General's switching shifts earlier now, doesn't want any mistakes now we're so close to our objective."

"And what an objective." Staffie's face lit up and he rattled his gun in an arc imitating the kick back as he took out a semicircle of enemies. "Can you imagine those bloodsucking bastards' faces when we show up on their doorstep with the contents of those pens upstairs in the front and a shit load of these babies in the rear?" He swept the gun back again taking out another row of imaginary vampires. Frankie looked up from where he was laying out body bags ready for failures from the next batch.

"You shouldn't talk about it outside the briefing room, what if that thing can hear through the wall."

Staffie snarled.

"Who cares, he's as good as dead anyway. Doesn't even lift his head to stare at you anymore flem eyed dick." Staffie leaned forward putting both hands on his gun and grinning at Frank.

"Don't tell me you're not looking forward to it. Maybe those bitches we're meant to be freeing will be grateful enough to give you a free ride. Trapped in a castle with only vamps for a few decades even you'd look good enough to shag Frankie boy, our benefactor can't take them all into his little hidey hole downstairs."

"General hears you talking like Staffie he'll give you to the Doctor to work on."

"I'm not scared of those pricks." Even as he said it Staffie glanced down the corridors to make sure they were still alone. Frankie shook his head.

"I am. The General's been acting funny ever since he hurt his arm, the look in his eyes, makes me nervous."

"Just cause you piss yourself every time he bats his eyes at you doesn't mean I have to. Just grow some Frankie or you'll never live to see…"

A man's arm connected with the Staffie's torso from out of thin air. Frank watched horror struck as his companion crumpled like paper, a thin line of blood trickling down from the fleshy lips, eyes already dulled to the world. He turned raising his gun already reaching for the alarm but now there was a metallic crash like thunder and a Frank turned to see a tattooed woman blur through the smashed door of the cell arms outstretched. The last thing Frank ever saw was two blue eyes and a pair of white fangs as the world went dark.

Angel lifted her head as the man's heart stopped. Vespera had warned them about drinking from the dead even so it was hard to stop, the blood felt good to her starved systems. Behind her the others filed out of the door hesitantly, Tyron now awake but unconvinced of their situation or the escape plan seemed to stand alone even in the small group. The lights made them twitch and shield their eyes but didn't seem to burn their skin. Bow straightened from taking his victim's watch and came to stand once more beside Serenity already scanning ahead for signs of fresh threats. Angel noted with a snort that both he and Jordan had fanned out to protect the women in the centre of the group, despite the fact she had doubts about the musicians chances in a brawl. Still half laughing she shouldered aside the door to the adjacent cell and stepped inside. The hiss of breath made some of the others crowd round.

The cell was dark but they could see the body on the floor of the cell easily. It lay cemented to the concrete floor by its own drying blood. Everywhere the stretched greying skin was cracked and blistered and the figure was so emaciated that Angel could see the lines of bones. He was naked and they could see where chunks of flesh and muscle had been ripped out and were missing as the body healed as best it could without them. Angel saw the gashes in his face, one incisor could be seen even when the mouth was closed. The eyes were tight shut, like her brothers had been when she'd found the bloodied mess of his body at the bottom of the stairs.

"Is he…" Sophia's voice trailed off.

"_I…am…not…dead."_

The voice in their heads made them all jump. The man's lips hadn't moved but the eyes flickered slightly, one was milky white, the other mashed beyond repair. As they moved closer the lights from the hall drifted in spearing the man's face and he let out a low moan of pain.

"We can't even get him out the room if he can't stand the hall lights, let alone expect him to walk upstairs." Sophia said moving to block any more light spilling in from the corridor.

"Leave him here then." Snapped Tyron agitated, his uncertainty whether to go back into his cell or flee up the hall all that kept him with the others.

"Find some water." Said Angel her eyes still not moving from the body on the floor, her voice oddly hollow. "Can't just pull him off the floor. Get something to cover him up, I can carry him. And the first person we meet he feeds on, even if we have to slit their throat and pour it down."

"That's sick." Bleated Tryst. Angel spun round hands raised like claws.

"No you little frick what's sick is that one creature can do that to another and them leave them alone in the dark to die a slow agonised death. The men here didn't do it for food, they didn't do it for protection, because let's face it what's in that room ain't no Bram Stokers Dracula right now. They did it for fun and that really, really pisses me off. Now get searching before I decided what's flowing through your dumb blonde veins would serve us better in him." Angel hissed sending Tryst scattering backwards into the hall.

"Hurry up please, we need to get moving while we can get out of here in darkness and before these men are missed." Bow's voice came in from the corridor.

A quick search of their sparsely furnished surroundings yielded a few blankets to pad out one of the body bags and a small bottle of drinking water one of the two corpses had brought down with them. It was enough to prise the skeletal body off the floor and lay him as gently as possible in the lined bag, blocking out the harsh lights from his tortured eyes. Angel closed the zip carefully taking care not to let the fastening touch the mangled skin more than necessary.

"_Where…is…Vespera?"_ The voice was weak even in their minds. Angel glanced at Sophia over the black surface of the carrier.

"The General took her somewhere, we'll find her once the cavalry arrive."

The scream hit each of them at once the bag moved slightly as the starved form inside struggled to rise.

"Don't be stupid." Hissed Angel, scooping the bag up off the floor and rising in one movement.

"_I must…"_

"_WE _must." Replied Angel, almost snarling as the group began to move away from the rooms that had held them prisoner for so. "I promise you we will find her. But we're alone and half-starved. We've not got a hope in hell until we can get some backup and our strength back…and for that we need to feed."

Fiske's body went still as they began to make their way up along the long blank corridors too weak to move anymore. However hard his instincts screamed at him he knew the last hope of survival for his mate lay in those around him and how they got through the dangers that lay between them and the help of his people they so badly needed.


	15. Chapter 15

The echo of the closing door reverberated round the corridor like a flurry of fading heartbeats. Vespera didn't move. The corridor in front of her was stone, a design not out of place in a medieval castle, and beyond the space seemed to widen into a large room lit by sparse rows of dull torches. The strange surroundings did not divert her attention for more than a second however from the creature that inhabited them.

The vampire in front of her stood in a pool of dim light with an expectant air about him. Everything about him disgusted her. The horrible red eyes were made worse framed as they were by his pale countenance and long limp black hair. Vespera could smell stale blood on his skin and dried into his clothes, she could see traces of it clumped under his nails and in his teeth. It turned her stomach as he drew nearer a smile on his thin lips.

"Do not mind the General my dear Vespera, I'm afraid he is quite mad. Something inside him broke the night I met him and the long decline of his mind has been accelerated by his recent foolishness. However I am pleased to say it is very unlikely you will meet him again. Ah but where are my manners, you will be in wonder. My name is Albursel and you are welcome to my Sanctum."

He bowed slightly though Vespera noted not low enough to take his eyes off her. He had still not moved away from the lights and it occurred to her that the vampire must be unaware of her recent physical changes. He was standing in the light because he thought she would need it to see him, he had not bothered to clean away the dried blood because before the change she would not have had the senses to notice it. She wondered whether she would live long enough to use his ignorance to her advantage.

"Ah but we are standing around staring when you must be tired and hungry. Please, please do follow, the other chambers here are much more comfortable for guests than a mere corridor. Come, come."

He beckoned her with a finger and started off down the corridor still smiling the mirthless smile. She followed slowly, there was little else she could do, the door behind her would be locked and she had no doubt Albursel would soon turn nasty if she became a problem. The best she could hope for was to drag his act of pleasant host out for as long as possible and give the others time to get help. She did not reach out for Fiske's mind although it was hard to stop herself from seeking this comfort. He was too weak to help her, he would kill himself trying, and her situation would only torment him further. She would spare him this if she could.

Albursel was careful to keep to the lights and the chamber he brought them into was itself brightly lit. It was beautifully furnished if a little sparse and medieval in taste. Corridors lead off the room like spokes, Vespera could feel a breeze blowing from somewhere ahead bringing a tang of something unpleasant in the air. Once she found this rotten note something loathsome crept into the rest of the chamber as well. The artwork was beautifully done but looking closely depicted scenes of subtle violence and torture. The furniture was sparse because the occupant had little need for it, the rugs, cushions and other soft furnishings Vespera suspected got replaced regularly. She could smell the tang of blood rising and sweat rising from the stone floor, fear seemed to seep out of the walls themselves. She fought to repress her revulsion and smiled back at the Vampire.

"It's beautiful." There was not a hint of her disgust in her voice, Vespera knew her life depended on it. "Did you make the artwork yourself?"

"No my dear Vespera, I am too old for such things, though you would not guess it to look at me. These were made by my family to give me pleasure, a beautiful and thoughtful gift, full of raw emotion. Many put their heart and soul into these works." He smiled at her.

She could smell the blood on the paintings now, tainted in some way, darker than that rising from the stones around her. 'Block it out' she warned herself 'Stay smiling, stay alive. Just don't let him know you're onto him or this favourite uncle routine will fade faster than a snowflake in hell.' She could feel Albursel's emotions now, only slightly but enough to make her skin crawl. There was triumph, lust, cruelty, sadism each flickering to the surface in turn as the evil thing gloated to himself.

"But your beauty makes me forget myself again. You must be thirsty after your ordeal at that idiot Generals hands. Allow me to get you something to drink, not a vintage I fear but quenching none the less." The vampire crossed to a low counter and poured something dark out of a glass decanter. The liquid was thick and almost black it was so dark red, it had the same tainted smell as the paintings as he handed it to her the cold smile still fastened on his face. She knew instinctively she must not drink it and even more instinctively that if she did not Albursel would suspect something. Vespera held the glass on her lap and tried to think how to distract him from it. If only she could get him talking, he seemed to like the sound of his voice, flatter his intellect maybe. She might even learn something useful.

"I'm glad to have been rescued from the cells upstairs but I would still like to know why I was imprisoned in the first place." She said hesitantly. Vespera felt the Albursel's mind turn as he took a draught from his glass. She realised he was judging her intellect, deciding whether she was a danger, before dismissing her question as natural curiosity. He laughed unconvincingly.

"You were useful my dear. You see science has provided me with a way of searching out those who have…special talents. The group upstairs has people stationed all over in laboratories who specialise in blood screening. When we find people who can be useful to us we bring them here and try to accentuate qualities already in their genetic structure. Some fail, some progress and find themselves waiting in the complex above and others…excel, going beyond the changes usually expect. Some of those special ones are brought to me...As you have been." Albursel was looking straight at her, Vespera tried not to even blink.

"What happens to those who progress Albursel, those upstairs." Albursel's eyes lit up.

"I think you cannot guess how old I am my dear." He said casually changing the subject. 'Too old to still be breathing.' Thought Vespera, out loud she said.

"I'm not sure, thirty six ish." Albursel laughed.

"Higher."

"Thirty eighty…forty."

"Higher." Laughed Albursel "Do not worry about offending me, I have surprisingly thick skin."

"Fifty...sixty…seventy."

"Keep going, you are still so cold."

"one hundred…two hundred…this is getting silly…three hundred." Vespera did her best to sound shocked.

"Four hundred…five hundred."

"Warmer dear Vespera, warmer." Albursel was enjoying himself, Vespera wondered if he had played this game before.

"seven hundred…eight hundred."

"Ah." Cried Albursel delighted. "You are nearly there, I will help you I think. Eight hundred and fifty seven years give or take a decade and I fully expect to live ten times that number."

"You're joking."

"Never." Said Albursel managing to sound hurt if slightly contrived.

"I don't believe you." Exclaimed Vespera.

"I did not expect you to my dear, not straight away. Now let me tell you a story my dear about good and evil, about a war fought over many millennium between my kind and ancient darkness and how soon I hope to emerge triumphant over my enemies. Then my dear I will offer you proof that what I'm saying is the truth and we shall toast to how you too can find immortality." The vampire's eye blazed hungrily and Vespera felt her time running out.


	16. Chapter 16

The small group hurtled down another empty corridor the lone security camera easily avoided. Angel kicked Tyron hard in the backside as he slowed down again. Much as she despised the sudden macho chivalry that had taken hold of both Bow and Jordan the weaselling way Tyron kept trying to hunker into the middle of the women out of harm's way annoyed her much more. He squealed like a stuck pig but sped up again allowing her to lengthen her stride. It was amazing how fast they could go now, they had already covered three floors working their way up sunken ventilation shafts rather than risk the stairs or lifts the gruelling climb no problem to their new faster bodies. If only they didn't have to risk the corridors between shafts but some of the connecting vents were too small to carry Fiske's body down.

They had avoided the guards despite their hunger. Bow was unwilling to risk leaving a path of bloodless bodies in their wake much to Angel's annoyance. 'When we have to fight we can feed.' He had said. 'The longer we can resist our bloodlust the better chance we have of reached the top floors before the alarm is raised.' Bow's one concession had been a lone scientist on the second floor. They had a lot of trouble fixing Fiske's limp form onto the struggling man but once the old Carpathian had tasted the blood he'd got the idea pretty quickly. Tryst and Tyron and whined like sulky children after the blood, even after the lifeless body had been crammed into the draws of a nearby desk. It had taken Angel most of her reserves of restraint not to kick the pair of them down the next corridor. The bag on her shoulder stirred, Angel tensed as if ready for an attack.

"_Feeling better." _she said. Angel was amazing how easily the new way of speaking had come. They were all using it now avoiding any sounds in the echoing metal corridors, it seemed so natural to communicate in thoughts.

"_Than what?" _Came Fiske's slow reply.

"_Just don't try any Romeo heroics superstar, getting help is still our best chance of saving your girlfriend."_

"_I am well aware of our situation…I am also aware of hers. Can we go faster?"_

"_Not without risking raising the alarm, we are still getting used to this high speed way of life, it's hard enough not crashing into the walls as it is."_

"_I…understand. My thanks, your efforts are...not unnoticed."_

The connection faded, the movement on Angel's shoulder stilled, she relaxed slowly the tension and anger fading back to bubble below the surface once more. She did not understand Fiske's patience, if love was as strong as she had been lead to believe she would tear the world apart to save her love, blood would flow. But Angel had never been in love, never been cared for except by her brother. All she had experienced was anger and violence and in the tangled web of her heart that was all she felt she was capable of. Why should she give more, when no more had been given to her? Love was a myth to sell valentine cards, a rationalisation of sex. To believe in it was like believing in hunger, if felt at all it was an itch to scratch nothing more.

The connections she felt forming between this small group confused and entwined her. Was it just the memories of her brother's violent end that made her agree to carry Fiske's bloodied body or the knowledge that in saving Vespera from the beasts in the cell he could have just as easily used her life as a shield rather than her body as a weapon? Was it the bonds between the two sisters and their men, between Fiske and Vespera, tempting her to abandon her warped views on love? Was she still the lone wolf out to save her own skin or part of a pack. Lost in thought she felt rather than saw Bow stop the others falling into line behind him, she stopped almost dead on her toes. Jordan grabbed Tyron as he skidded to a halt less successfully almost rounding the corner.

"_There are people ahead."_ Bow's warning was unnecessary, they could all hear the shuffling of bodies ahead.

"_Do we risk looking." _Asked Jordan, Bow shrugged.

"_I don't see we have much of a choice. The night is moving on, we are running out of time. I do not think as we are we could risk full sunlight. If we are to call for help they will also need as much darkness as we can give them to save Vespera. I will look once, be ready to run." _

Everyone held their breath as Bow glanced once round the corner. Angel felt the tension rise again. As always part of her was craving a fight, something to draw her mind away from her situation and the tedium of the endless corridors. There was no shouts of alarm from ahead and as Bow pulled himself back Angel could see he looked puzzled.

"_There is no one ahead."_ He explained.

"_But the noise is definitely coming from around the corner?"_ Asked Sophia

"_Yes I am sure it is but there is no one there. The lights have been dimmed but that makes no difference, I can see every inch." _He frowned further.

"_I should tell you that we seemed to be nearer our destination that I had realised. There are large glass windows ahead, the noise may be coming from outside."_ Bow stated. Angel felt her mind trip ahead, cold sweat started on her spine.

"_Large windows you say." _Angel began. Even in her thoughts there was the hint of horror. _"The glass coloured like an old fashioned coke bottle. The seals on them are metal and thick as a roll of wrapping paper. There's only one door, looks like something out of those labs in the monster movies."_

They stared at her opened mouthed. Only Tryst stood chewing her lip staring around with the large doe like eyes. Bow nodded.

"_You have described it exactly. How?"_ He asked, the others stood waiting. Angel tried to clamp down on the climbing feeling of bile in her throat, sweat clung to her skin.

"_The monster pens I saw on the trip down, we're here." _She gulped involuntarily trying to control her trembling stomach.

"_We could back track." _Suggested Jordan glancing back the way they had come.

"_We don't have time, for all we know every way out is lined with these creatures, or this may be the only exit. We need to find a way through and quickly." _replied Bow. Tyron glanced round nervously.

"_Can't she take us passed these things?"_ Tyron started, the terror in his thoughts was palpable.

Serenity seemed to gaze into the distance for a moment and then shook her head.

"_The way ahead is not clear to me." _Serenity's voice was somehow stronger in their minds. Sophia's in contrast was as whispery as her sister's tones in the cell far below.

"_She hasn't eaten in who knows how long and she's only just learnt how to move two people, how do you expect her to get all of us out of here?"_ Sophia hissed angrily.

"_We could walk it?" _Suggested Jordan.

"_What and just hope those things don't kick off!" _Snorted Tyron.

"_I'm serious." _Said Jordan. _"Think about it, Angel walked past them without more than a few bangs on the glass. The only time we've ever seen them go mad was when that guard got his head smashed in and as far as I can tell we're all pretty intact."_

"_What about the door at the other end?"_ Asked Sophia.

"_If it's anything like the last few pieces of crap we can smash through it. A few guards would go down a treat right now." _Quipped Angel cold sweat still breaking on her back, her stomach was in knots. It was not only the hunger that was turning her insides to water, the thought of having to step out among the crates of monsters frighten her more than she was prepared to admit. They disgusted her like nothing she'd ever encountered, violence and bloodlust without hate, without menace. Violence for the sake of violence alone.

"_Do you think we could?" _Sophia's thoughts trembled only slightly, Angel became acutely aware that she was not the only one wishing to bury the fear of the creatures in front of them.

"_Perhaps." _Bow's mind was hesitant. _"We can not stand here any longer. I saw a camera, it sweeps from side to side to cover the hall and the pens. We will need to move fast when it turns away from us and position ourselves flat against the wall by the door underneath the camera itself. We will go in small groups to replicate the movements of the gaurds Angel you will take Fiske last in case they can smell your wound or the blood through the bag."_

_"Great."_ snapped Angel testily, she couldn't wait to get passed the monsters.

Bow positioned Tryst, and Sophia with Jordan. Two short glances into the corridor told him the position and speed of the camera as it swept away he pushed Jordan and the others into the hall. Angel felt their footsteps on the shining tiles rather than heard them as the small group sped passed the pens. Angel's heart stopped momentarily as she heard the smack of flesh on glass, once twice, three times. Seconds ticked by though they felt like hours.

_"We made it." _Jordan's thoughts made them all jump. _"The things nearest the windows banged on them a few times but they've calmed back down now. They aren't lookers that's for sure, I'm glad something screwed up our batch."_

_"Serenity and I will go next with Tyron."_ Bow clasped Serenity's hand pulling her closer to him, he looked at Angel and the bag on her shoulder. _" I don't like leaving you to carry Fiske but you've fed and will be faster than us. If there is a problem run away, we'll bring help as fast as we can. I'll let you know when the camera has..."_

_"Tyron you dick get back." _Jordan's frantic thoughts sent a chill through Angel. The businessman was no longer with them. There was one shared mental image of the terrified man halfway down the dim corridor before the alarm went off and all hell broke loose.

Jordan shoved Sophia and Tyrst back against the wall as the lights flared and the end door flew open. The men pouring through it didn't hesitate to fire on the only target in their sight. Tyron had time for one short scream before the bullets tore through him shredding muscle and bone, smacking into the glass behind. Blood spattered against the walls as the guards kept pumping their guns into the falling corpse causing it to twitch and dance under the glare of the tiny uv torch lights fixed to the weapons. Angel felt something switch off inside her head, her link to the frightened Tyron severed for good.

Angel felt rather than saw Jordan move in before the guards turned. Two had their necks inexpertly broken before they could see what had happened. The third tiny Tryst fastened her teeth onto wrenching the gun out of her victims grasp and throwing it far out of reach. _"They need us, stay here." _Bow said as he and Serenity vanished from view. The next moment Angel heard the scream of guards from ahead.

The brittle cracking sound from ahead made every muscle in her body freeze. It was out of place amoung the horribly organic sounds of her small group finishing off the guards. It rang out again as the last sounds of fighting began to fade away from ahead.

_"Bow, what the hell..."_ Angel began.

There was another crack and the sound of shattering glass. Something between a scream and a growl seemed to issue from multiple throats just beyond the bend of the corridor. Something emerged into her field of view following the spatter of Tyrons blood and brain matter, long thick blackened tongue lapping at the floor greedily, thickened three fingered hands clasping at the floor in pleasure at its find.

Angel moved back slowly just as more began to crawl into view. There was not enough blood for all of them, they looked up at her mouths open, eyes narrowing. It crouched red eyes fixed on her throat.

The bag on her shoulder stirred slightly.

_"Run."_ Fiske's voice was half request half demand. For once Angel did not need to be compelled. She turned and sped away, feeling the thud as something heavy landed where she had been standing a second earlier. There was no question the creatures would not follow her, no time to think about the others. She ran onwards, downwards, not thinking about what lay ahead or the swaying burden of the old carpathian on her shoulder, only hoping to outwit or outrun the murderous horde now at her heels intent on tearing her limb from limb.


	17. Chapter 17

"There are things that live here in this world my dear." began Albursel. "Which although they look as human, are not as human. Dark things out of those stories which have so often come from the deep heart of the continent. Too often to be ignored." He paused for effect staring down at Vespera. "They tell of those who shy from sunlight, who entrap the minds of mere mortals. Who must drink human blood to survive. The vampire." Albursel smiled.

"But there is another race that is not spoken of, one which too shys away from sunlight and needs blood to survive. The Carpathains, of which I am one."

Vespera tried to look rapt at Albursels words even though she knew them to be lies. The red eyes that stared down at her with such intent betrayed the vampire even more than the traces of dried blood on his skin. She held to goblet of foul ichor, for she was now in no doubt it was the creatures dark blood, quite still in her lap afraid that even the slightest movement would draw his attention to the still untouched cup.

"My peoples have been mercilessly hunted for centuries by man and vampire both. Man fears us as we share the night with the vampire and the vampire fears us because we seek his death where we can. We are at war and have been for millenia. Our women suffer most, and as a male may only claim or indeed want one mate through his life, our numbers dwindled almost to the point of extinction." Continued Albursel lost deeply within the sound of his own voice.

"I was hunted by such creatures on the night I met the dear General. The poor man had lost his wife and child to a vampire and was half mad with grief and the desire for revenge. He had tracked it but had met some of the foul thing's creatures on his way to it's lair and was losing blood. I saved him both from the creatures and those who hunted me and convinced him of the existance of others who would share our common purpose. Why throw his life away in a petty act of vengence when he could free so many others from the vampires curse. Together we built this place and our little group has gone from strength to strength." He laughed mistaking Vespera's horrified expression for one of bemusement.

"I do not mean to be so mysterious my dear I am well aware of how I must sound to you. Eventually, with some guidance, the General discovered a way to tilt the odds in our favour. You see I have always thought of war as a question of numbers and tactics but why do we have to wait for our ranks to increase. We could make allies, literally make them the technology makes such wonderful things possible now. And we are so nearly ready to march on the vampires, to take back those woman they have perverted to their cause. To live our lives in total...peace." Albursel looked at the wall seeing some pleasing future for him and his kind. Vespera was almost numb with terror because she knew. She knew it would be Carpathians not vampires who would be annihilated by Albursel and his army of monsters. It would be vampires who would take and subjegate Carpathian woman. A vampire future of bloodshed and misery.

"And you will be part of this my beautiful darling. You may not know it but you bear the very first signs of a change which will make you part of our little family here. Think of it, eternal life free from the vampire terror, never getting old or sick. No death. No suffering. The world yours for the taking." The vampire was smiling down at her now, her bright future spreading before him. He walked to one of the corridors leading from the room.

"But I said that I would offer you proof of such things. Here."

He held out his hand. Movement began from the darkness beyond. Slowly, very slowly, a woman came into view. For a moment Vespera was struck dumb, she recognised the figure appearing into the room from what seemed like a lifetime ago, but how changed, how different she was.

"You remember Rachel I think. She was brought to me much earlier and embraced all that I had to tell her." said Albursel beaming at his creation.

Rachel shuddered her wide eye's flicking around the room faster than Vespera could follow. The lawyer was in a thin dress, her hair hang loosely round her face her arms were limp by her sides, her feet bare and suprisingly dirty. Any fight she had once had was gone from the vacant face, her lips were slightly parted and her skin was as pale as paper. She fixed eyes on Vespera and started forward mouth open and fangs showing but Albursel was quick to catch her arm.

"You can greet your friend later my dear now I want you to do something for me." He whispered in her ear. Rachel shook as he spoke but when he pulled away she went directly to one of the walls and began to climb. Vespera looked on half in horror half in amazement as Rachel came to the curve of the ceiling and without stopping began to traverse the vertical surface. Albursel watched with rapt attention as she came to the centre of the room and a hook and chain set in for some missing chandeller. Vespera saw what was going to happen just a second before it did.

"No, nonono." She moaned softly, standing up in spite of herself.

Rachel turned on one hand with all the grace of an acrobat and lowered her uncovered shoulder through the hook. There was a meaty noise as the hook caught under her shoulder bone and the lawyer let go of the ceiling. She hung arms spayed, poised as the hook rotated her round and round like some macarbe decoration. Blood began to drip onto the stone floor beneath. Albursel turned to Vespera smiling like a dog owner whose pet has just learnt a new trick.

"You need not be concerned. She is not in pain, she will heal in minutes when I let her down." he said looking at her. Vespera could feel the pain, fear and bloodlust emenating from the hanging figure. Rachel was once more looking at her wantonly, the only source of fresh blood in the room.

"And now my dear we will toast you, and your new life with us will begin. Raise your glass." said Albursel still smiling. Vespera looked down at the blood in the glass. The moment had come. If she drunk she would become a vampire as Rachel had before her. If she did not Albursel would make her or kill her. She could try to keep him talking longer but the sight of the hanging figure had taken away any ability she had to keep sweet talking the vampire. He disgusted her by his very existance, his prescence made her soul itch. She looked straight at him and poured the contents of the cup out onto the carpet.

In a second he was beside her his face morphed into something feral full of rage. On her hook Rachel struggled sensing the impending violence clawing the air in desperation to be part of it.

"That was...foolish my dear." said Albursel. One hand grabbed her waist the other her hair as he dragged her neck towards him. Bloody rain showered down from the now frantic figure above. Vespera felt the fetid breath on her skin as Alburserl closed in ready to bite.

He stopped, the breath hitting her exposed throat in waves and then dropped her on the blood soaked floor. He stood stock still for a second staring off at the ceiling above and then smiled once more at her his eyes now burning fires of scarlet.

"I am needed above. One of my little darlings tells me your group has got out of their cell and found the surface route, releasing a number of my creatures on the way." He walked back to the corridor. "Do not think I will neglect you Vespera my dear, on my return we will have all the time in the world to continue this. In the meantime I leave you in the care of my precious ones. After all, it has been so long since I bought a live meal down here for them."

He laughed and vanished as behind him women started to pour from the darkened halls, their clothes were torn, their skin soiled and their bright red eyes fixed on Vespera.


	18. Chapter 18

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Angel rounded a corner swearing as the things at her heels piled in behind her. There was no time to avoid people or security cameras now, the whole compound was alive with soldiers and alarms. Bullets buzzed past as she threw herself down an open shaft and kicked the vent cover out into a new corridor. The creatures crawled after her in a clawing mass desperate to taste her flesh, whining and howling like a pack of dogs.

She dodged a group of terrified scientists and slammed shut a steel door before running on.

_"That will not stop them." _Came Fiskes voice. _"They are too strong and too many."_

_"If you've got any better ideas I'm waiting to hear them hotshot."_ Angel snarled, already she could hear the sound of tearing metal behind her and the baying of the creatures.

_"There is a vampire here, he would have a secure lair in case these things got loose." _came the old Carpathian's slow reply.

_"You want to me to try get into a vampire's lair."_ said Angel increduously.

_"Vespera is there, I can trace her location."_ said Fiske calmly.

_"Fuck you fangboy. It's hard enough trying to keep alive out here, you're suggesting I lock us in with a vamp. Just cause your girlfriend's in trouble doesn't mean we all have to die."_ Angel snapped.

_"We have more chance against one vampire that a dozen of these creatures." _replied Fiske ignoring the insults. _"I could force you, but you will be more able to fight if you have free will."_

_"I can't fight a damn vampire."_ Spat Angel venemously."_What if it gets in my head like you, I'm not strong enough to fight that off."_

_"You are stronger than you think. I know, I have a blood link with you I can feel the shape of you, that is how we can communicate." _ Fiske's thoughts came quietly._ "The vampire has none of this, all he will have is what you give him. You fight the world every day Angel, I ask you to fight one vampire. Tear out his heart, burn it and watch him crumble like dust. Know that you have rid the world of one more piece of evil."_

_"What do you mean by that."_ Angel snapped.

_"Take what you will from it. You are a warrior, you have spent much time protecting those who needed you whether they knew it or not. Even here, you risked death at the hands of the soldiers to prevent them seperating Sophia and Serenity, two sisters who even now need each other greatly." _Fiske said. _"Vesepera was willing to give her life to protect you when you were unconcious and prone to attack from the beasts in your cell. All I ask is that you at least try to do the same for her."_

There was silence for a minute.

_"She didn't even know me. Why did she...I didn't know"_ Angel's thoughts were confused and muddled swimming round and round her head. More silence.

_"Well shit." _ Angel said eventually. _"Who want's to live forever anyway. Which way Captain."_

_"Down." _replied Fiske, feeling the shape of his link with Vespera stretch out beneath him. _"We go down."_

Angel kick open another shaft and dived onward towards the vampires lair.


	19. Chapter 19

"I don't like woods, the branches always get stuck in my hair." whined Tryst as they pushed through another mass of branches. The group had slowed now they had put distance between them and the compound, negotiating the woods with care. The sounds of their pursuers had died off some time ago but none of them were in any doubt the soldiers were not behind them somewhere.

"Keep going, you're doing great." encouraged Jordan, he gave Serenity's hand a light squeeze that sent shivers down her back as he help her over the detritus on the forest floor. Tryst was by far the slowest one in the group, every branch was an obstruction ever change in the terrain a chore. Here speed was making them all edgy.

"It was lucky those things went after Angel and not us, I don't think we could outrun them in these trees." Sophia said half heartedly trying to get her mind off what might be catching them up. "I hope they didn't get her."

"She's still alive, I can feel her at the back of my mind." Said Jordan lifting some more branches out of the way of her and Tryst. "I'd almost feel sorry for them if they did catch up. You saw what she did to the last one who tried to make a meal out of her."

"Yes but that was one, there were at least a dozen chasing her when we ran." Sophia replied.

"There is no point feeling guilty about leaving her there. Our only hope is to get help before they can regroup and send the monsters out after us." said Bow and then more quietly. "We should try and make contact again, we have walked on some way."

They went quiet for a minute as each went through the mental motions that Vespera had taught them. They could feel the barrier stretching out before their minds, there was not so much as a crack they could squeeze through. The group had tried this more than a few times now each time the barrier overhead was as strong as before. Frustrated they quietly began to move on again.

"Didn't Vespera say Carpathians can fly or something." said Sophia.

"I don't want to try it for the first time right now, I heard a helicopter in the distance a few times." Said Jordan smiling. "I think my style with be more jumping chicken than flying eagle the first few times I give it a go even if the other Carpathians are prepared to give lessons."

"Do you really think they'll accept us, I mean I know we're changing but those soldiers never meant us to be like Fiske. Do you think we'll be enough like the others to fit in." Said Sophia voicing something that had been gnawing at her ever since Vespera had told them to make contact with the Carpathians. Jordan hugged her briefly giving her another quick smile.

"They'll won't kill us even if what was done to our bodies doesn't make us exactly like them." He said "We don't mean no harm and we could be useful somehow, Ves said they're aren't that many of them now. But what I'm sure of is that those soldiers will kill us or mess with us more now they know we haven't turned how they wanted us to. I don't want that to happen to you, me or any of us and I don't want to end up like that poor sod Tyron either. Getting the Carpathians to help us is our best bet and even if they don't want to help us, they'll help Fiske and he won't let them leave Ves and I know Ves won't let them leave us. We'll be ok, you'll see."

Bow and Serenity had been walking ahead, they seemed to be deep in thought, Sophia suspected they may even be talking together via the mental link they shared. Bow looked concerned, his shoulders were tense beneath the thin fabric of the scrubs his face was carefully blank but his eyes were searching ahead in the gloom. Serenity's expression was blank but now she came to stand beside her sister and reached out to hold her hand the first time she had left Bow's side since the cell. Sophia let Jordan walk a few steps ahead as her sister looked up at her. She reached out only to Serenity with her mind.

_"I'm sorry I was upset with you in the cell Serenity, I was so frightened when I found you gone it was too much to take with everything else that has happened. Bow is taking good care of you, I don't think we could have got passed the pens without him."_

_"I feel better when he is with me, things are not so frightening, but he is worried. She isn't right. He said it wasn't right. I am to stay close to you "_ Serenity replied. Sophia shook herself mentally.

_"What do you mean Serenity? She, do you mean Vespera? She's blocked by the compound now it's all I can do to sense her."_ Something else was creeping up in the back of her mind as well now a dull terror Sophia couldn't put a finger on.

_"No, the other. We should be out from under the barrier by now but it's like we're carrying it with us." _Serenity continued. "S_he went straight for the throat,did you see, did you think of doing that. Could you have done that?"_

Sophia shivered despite herself. Serenity could talk more coherantly and for longer in her mind but she wasn't making any more sense. There was something dark on the edge of her mind as well, a slow creeping shadow buzzing for attention like the arrival of the first few insects from an oncoming swarm.

_"You can feel it tracking us can't you." _Said Serenity looking at her. _"Like a dark shadow on the edge of your mind. It's stronger with you. You've always been more sensitive to the prescence of evil, it's why you've always been able to look out for us, to find us somewhere safe to go."_

_"I'm just sensible." _Sophia said still shivering. The terror was growing now, her skin crawled in anticipation of the threat.

_"You found the way out of the fire at our house through the smoke. You knew where to hide from Mama Jermaine and her stick. When we were burgled you knew they would not look for us in the attic. It is your gift, as leaping is mine." _Serenity squeezed her sister's hand. _"I have not fed Sophia, Bow needs his strength to fight. I have enough energy for one more jump but I don't know which way to go, even now something masks the way ahead." _Sophia started.

_"I don't know what you're talking about Serenity."_ She thought hesitantly.

_"I have never been able to deny what I can do." _ Serenity carried on. _"The world has always frightened me too much. You have hidden this even from yourself for so long, but I need you Sophia, even now I need you, I can't do this on my own."_

Sophia was shaking now, Serenity gripped her hand even as Jordan touched her arm worry on his usually carefree features. Bow stood still at Serenity's side staring silently all around, feeling the threat but unsure where it was coming from. It was only then Sophia notice Tryst stood apart from the group, she was smiling at them but her eyes were hard.

"Tryst." Sophia said the word out loud despite herself, her teeth were chattering with fear. The prescence was the worst she'd ever felt and so close now descending on them like smoke making the air oily and foul.

"You can feel my Love." Tryst said as black flecks began to form around her. "He spoke to me as I lay sleeping, he told me how beautiful I was, how I was for him alone." She shuddered with pleasure. "Even as we fled he was there telling me how to block your minds in. To stop you from destroying everything he's worked so hard for. He is the king of this place, he will kill you all and make me his queen."

_"It seems Tryst didn't recieved enough of Fiske's blood." _Said Bow, even through the link they could feel his anger and fear. He was trying to move in front of them all to protect them from whatever was forming around Tyrst. Jordan pushed the two sisters behind him and came to stand beside Bow shaking almost as much as Sophia. Bow gave him a rare smile without taking his eyes from the scene in front of him.

_"A brave choice my friend." _Bow said as the vampire began to take shape ahead.

_"Hey."_ said Jordan nervously balling his hands up into fists. _"We're family, by blood thanks to those mad scientists back there. By marriage if we could get out of this alive and if you feel half the way about Serenity that I do about Sophia." _Sophia smiled despite her terror and laid her hand on Jordan's shoulder.

_"Then, Brother, it will be my honour to die with you."_ Bow finished, in no doubt what was going to happen. The vampire was almost fully formed now, whatever barrier Tryst had put up seemed to be slowing it down. Red eyes glared out at them from a pallad face, one bonelike hand closed around the stunned woman's throat. Sophia felt something shift overhead.

_"Sophia." _Serenity's voice was almost a plea. _"The barrier is cracking, Tryst has lost concentration, we have to go now. Help me."_

_"But I don't know how." _half cried Sophia her mind throbbing with the vampire's prescence.

_"HELP ME." _Serenity's voice was a silent scream in Sophia's thoughts.

In desperation Sophia threw her mind through the newly formed cracks in the mental shield around them. Out over the wood, across the dry fields scorched by the sun she would no longer be able to see, over a river low and sluggish in it's channel. There was rock here, low mountains miles from this place, something alien was carved deep within them, something safe.

_"Here." _She almost screamed it back at Serentiy. _"Take us here." _

Before the words were even half formed in her mind Sophia felt a dizzying rush of air through her as if she were suddenly tiny particles in the pull wind rushing out and away towards the mountains. The last noise she heard before she was lost to the sensation was the vampire's wild scream of rage fading into the distance somewhere below.


	20. Chapter 20

The women moved in slowly, tensely, scavangers closing on an animal still live enough to fight. Some crawled on the floor their legs bent at strange angles, others had fingers or whole hands missing, all were filthy and barely clothed. Albursel it seem did not treat his brides well.

Vespera began backing slowly towards the wooden door that lead to the facility above the blood red eyes of the women followed her every move as they inched towards her. Above there was a tearing sound and Rachel dropped to the floor, her shoulder bone splintered and dark blood flowing from the torn flesh. Vespera did not even considered going to help, whatever the frightened lawyer had been the hungry eyes and open jaws left her in no doubt of what she was now. She gently lifted a heavy wooden candle stick from a nearby side table trying to remember what she had heard about killing vampires. The only method she could be even half sure of was to stake the heart, but with one blunt candle stick and at least half a dozen vampire women it would be a job even to dispatch one before the rest were on her.

_"Do you know how to kill a vampire?"_ The voice was faint but present in her thoughts.

_"Fiske?"_ Vespera replied hesitantly, some of the women were starting to hiss. One lunged and Vespera brought the candlestick down hard on the brunette, there was the crack of bone and the woman fell.

_"Not quite, Get the door open." _Vespera swung at another vampire who came too close, any second now they would all charge her, then she would be helpless and dead. Her heel hit the entrance door, one hand felt for the lock. In front the women swayed each unwilling to be the first to leap for the throat.

_"Do you know how to kill a vampire?"_ The voice asked again as Vespera's fingers closed around the cold iron of a key, she gripped and began to turn as one of the vampire's crouched mouth open and leapt.

There was the click of a lock, a sudden rush of air and the sound of an automatic as Vespera threw herself out of the way. In front of her the women jerked and danced as bullets flew slicing into the tightly packed group and felling many of them on the spot. After a crowded moment of uncertainty the noise stopped, the gun dropped to the floor and someone grabbed her hand. Vespera looked up to see Angel, a heavy black bag over one shoulder.

"Aim for the heart." Angel finished, pulling Vespera forward over the twitching prone women, she kicked one trying to bite her exposed foot. "Weapon courtesy of dead guard number four on the floor above."

"Angel, how..." Vespera began.

"The girlfriend tracker in the body bag. Now we better run because I hear some old friends coming to play." Angel said picking up speed. The sound of howling started behind them. Vespera trod on something trying to grab her leg.

"Angel you only wounded them." she said. "The vampires aren't dead."

"They soon will be." replied Angel nastily as framed by the open door the first of the pursuing creatures began to pile in, tearing into the group of screaming bloodied women like a child through wrapping paper.

_"Through the corridor."_ Fiske's voice rang clear. _"I sense a safe place ahead. I am glad to find you well my heart."_

_"Just don't get too glad buddy, I'm still carrying you face down remember."_ said Angel as they ran down the filthy corridor the woman had come from.

The vaulted room they ran into would have caused Vespera to pause even in flight unless Angel, swearing under her breath, had pulled her on. It was a cathedral of filth and pain. Blood had sprayed onto the walls again and again until it dried in raised layers on the grimy stone walls. Scraps of what could only be decayed flesh lay here and there abandoned on the floor and all around broken and stained furniture sat side by side with well used impliments of torture. Explict paintings of violence often twinned with sex lined the walls. Vespera could feel despair ebbing from the air itself.

_"Keep moving."_ Angel hissed mentally. _"Those bloody freak shows won't stop with the vamps for long."_

There was only one exit door. It looked like black iron with symbols raised on the surface, heavy bands held it to the wall. There was no handle only dent in the centre clearly meant to fit something. Angel let go of Vespera and put her shoulder to it.

_"Great Fiske, out of the frying pan into the fucking fire. We're trapped in fang boys play room."_ she said ramming it with her shoulder again.

_"This is the safe room, there will be a way in or the vampire would not have created it."_ Came Fiskes reply. _"Take me out of this bag there are no lights that can harm me here."_

Angel and Vespera complied. Fiske emerged painfully paying no mind to the fact that his emaciated form was still naked but Angel noted the earlier meal had done him good. Some of the gaping wounds had began to close and his face looked fuller, the milky eye had lost some of it's whiteness although the decimated one remained closed.

For Vespera seeing her mate for the first time it was a shock. Despite the mental examination of his wounds earlier in her minds eye any image of self she had gleaned from him had been from his life outside the compound. Torture and starvation had taken its toll, his body had gone beyond what any physical form was meant to endure. She noted the missing flesh, the wounds still weeping slowly, the lumps where bones repeated broken had healed badly.

_"All wounds heal in time."_ His voice came across that private bond they shared stronger than ever. _"I will never again be as I was before, but in time I will become a whole person again. As you see me now is not as I will be, do not be frightened by me."_

_"I am not frightened."_ said Vespera slowly. _"I am weeping inside for what has been done to you. I love and desire you as you were, as you are and as you will be. You are mine as I am yours my love."_

Fiske put an arm carefully round her shoulders half for support, half to embrace her. Their first physical contact set shivers through both of them and even now in such mortal peril Vespera could sense the control he was exerting over his want and physical need for her.

_"There will be a key." _Fiske said to both of the women. _"It will be nearby. We must search."_

In true this meant Angel had to search. Fiske was not strong enough to stand by himself and any movement was still painful to his battered flesh. Vespera looked hard at their surroundings willing them to give up their secret to her. Angel threw the stained furniture aside unconcerned with her contact with the tainted material.

_"Any idea what it will look like Captain."_ asked Angel hurling aside a particularly gruesome looking table complete with jagged knives.

_"It may not look like a key as such." _Admitted Fiske _"But it will feel different. He has not made the door from traditional materials."_

_"Care to elaborate?"_ quipped Angel.

_"Layers of human bone and flesh, dried under preasure." _said Fiske.

_"Great, wish I hadn't put my fucking shoulder to it now, bloody vampires."_ muttered Angel sorting through another nearby bundle of knives.

Behind them the screams of the vampires were dying out, the creatures were finishing their meal. Angel threw aside the contents of a bookcase swearing quietly. Vespera glanced round the walls again, surely Albursel would have put the key to his only escape route close to the door, but Angel had searched everywhere within hands reach. Something made her look up, maybe not quite everywhere.

Another horrific painting hung above the door, the one was different from the others in that it seemed almost three dimensional, at least in parts. There was howling from beyond the corridor now, some of the things were coming their way now searching out their next meal.

_"Angel." _said Vespera pointing upwards. _"Check the painting here."_ Angel swung herself up using the now empty bookcase as a foothold.

_"Its got bits of skin in it."_Angel said her mind heavy with disgust.

_"Anything else?"_Asked Vespera

_"I'm fairly sure this is blood and...Wait, I think..."_

Sounds started in the carridor outside, snuffling and scratching. Vespera turned as the first shapeless grey face came hesitantly into the room, it's features cacked in black blood.

Angel swore visciously and grabbed something organic from the painting. The creature was keening shrilly as it caught the new scent of fresh prey. Fiske half turned on Vespera's shoulder watching this new threat emerge.

_"Angel come down slowly, it is undecided as yet who to kill first. No sudden movements or it will charge you."_ Fiske said, Vespera felt him tense waiting for the thing to strike. Angel felt her way down slowly never taking her eyes from the threat. In her hand she held something black and leathery about the size of a fist, it took Vespera a moment for Vespera to recognise it as a decaying heart.

_"This better fucking work." _Said Angel her mind on edge as she slowly forced the heart into the hollow on the door. _"I'm pretty sure this came from one of his bitches, its like holding a ball of electricity."_

_"A little faster Angel."_ Said Fiske as the creature began to bob its head from side to side the red eyes fixing each of them in turn. The heart slide into a depression at the bottom of the hollow wobbling slightly as it settled

_"Its not working."_ Angels voice panicked for the first time. Vespera didn't dare turn to examine the door further now, the creature in front of them began to crouch, beside her she Felt Fiske tense.

_"Wait."_ Angel started her voice sharp. _"The hollows too big, its as if it needs..."_

In front of them more scratching and baying started just behind the darkness of the corridor as the other beasts began to arrive. The creature made up its mind and leapt just as Angel turned. Her arm moved overhead hand outstreatched as the thing came down on them. Fingers closed about the grey chest and plunged into the flesh as the monster screamed in pain. Seconds later Angel flung the twitching body aside as she thrust the still pulsating heart into the hollow, her eyes were ablaze, her hand and wrist smeared with the thing's blood. The door seemed to accept the offering, the surface began to vibrate and tear along the middle revealing a narrow passage . Angel grabbed Fiskes other arm and they fled into the unknown darkness beyond. Behind the door closed the unholy flesh sealing itself without a trace shutting out the bloodthirsty noises as in the room of pain the mutants found the fresh body of their comrade and unashamefully began to feed once again.


	21. Chapter 21

There is a certain bravery to opening your eyes to the unknown after something horrific has happened. Sophia thought if such bravery was rewarded with medals she deserved a fistfall for opening her eyes after the floating sensation finally stopped. She was lying down on a earth floor that was warm to the touch and smelled of herbs though not a plant could be seen. She stretched her fingers and stared up at the stone ceiling above trying to shake the lethagy and mental fragmentation that accompanied her journey here. She knew they were in a deep cave that had been made by unknown hands, somewhere that had been made safe from the outside world. She could see the rock walls although there was no light here, they had been smoothed and rounded until they resembled the inside of a globe, smoothed and then etched in lines no thicker than a hair. The etchings almost looked like some strange language, the very words seemed to float above the walls somehow and contained a power of their own.

Something brushed her hand. Jordan's hair felt like silk against her fingers as he stirred next to her blinking at the darkness around them.

"Hey." His voice seemed weak and otherworldly as it echoed off the walls. "We're still breathing, I must be a better fighter than I thought." Sophia smiled and bent to kiss him. She shivered as she felt the touch of his lips, the heat rising through her body. He wrapped a hand in her hair and pulled her closer to him legthening the kiss teasing her mouth with his own until she felt time stop for a second. Then the world came crashing back down.

_"Serenity."_ Her thoughts focused on that one word with razor clarity and in that same second both she and Jordan were on their feet searching the cave floor for the others.

They found Bow first, his head was bent, his whole body slumped over what he held in his lap. They felt his despair before they could even open their mouths to speak.

_"She won't wake up." _His voice was a medlay of agonies. He was rocking the small figure that lay limp in his arms. _"I can feel her slipping away from me, her mind is barely there she is so weak from the journey. I know she needs to feed but how, how do I feed her, how? She doesn't even have fangs"_ Sophia felt tears pricking at her eyes, numb as his pain and her own washed over her. Serenity had done more than they had dared hope of her transporting so far so many when she was half starved. How could they help her when they were unsure even how to feed themselves. How could they help Vespera, Fiske and Angel trapped in the complex nearby with the darkness running out around them. They were all so weak now and so new to this physical state it was a miracle they had managed to escape their captors with only the loss of Tyron and the defection of Tyrst. They needed help so badly Sophia could feel the ache it created in her heart.

_"Help." _She threw out the mental plea to the room, to the earth around them to the air itself as she stared at the motionless figure on the floor. _"Help us please."_ in desperation and sheer blind hope she threw out the names Vespera had told them to focus on. _"Gregori Daratrazanoff, Aidan Savage please, please help us."_

Jordan grabbed her hand and drew her closer to him his mind on edge. The feeling in the room had changed suddenly as if her words had awakened some dormant action in the rock itself. Something cold and almost electric began to creep into the air raising the hairs on their skin and prickling their scalps. The solid sensation around them faded leaving the room feeling vunerable and exposed to an unseen force. Bow huddled over Serenity, shielding her as best he could from the air itself his mind torn between a possible threat and Serenity's need.

In the back of her thoughts Sophia could feel a sensation not dissimilear to the first tremors of the spider moving along it's web after the entaglement of a fly. It was not the same as the terror of the vampire or the malignance of the cell but a heightened sense of danger. Something was coming closer at a frightening speed, something ancient and powerful, her outburst was its focus and the room was welcoming it.

They appeared before Sophia could even scream, four men who seemed to flow through the rock itself and surround them, each the very image of natures fury. Jordan forced Sophia further behind him in terror. Bow clutched Serenity to him one arm raised as if to strike out but Sophia grabbed him and tried to drag it back down.

_"Bow don't, please don't. Look at them they'll kill us if you so much as move. I think they're the Carpathians Vespera told us about, they could help Serenity, they could help us all. We're all so scared Bow, please, please don't. " _Her thoughts came in a garbled mess through the shared link. Bow stared at her as if seeing her for the first time since they'd entered the cave then slowly lowered his arm. She grabbed his hand and Jordan's so tightly her knuckle went white willing them both to keep calm her own fear beating at her chest.

"What are you doing in this place?" The man who spoke had long black hair the colour of a ravens wing and silver eyes that almost shone in the darkness. His voice seemed ancient and hung with barely leashed power. "It is guarded by powerful wards how did you enter?"

"And how do you know our names?" This was from a man with golden hair and golden eyes. Sophia turned to look at them, two men with black hair, two with gold all with the same look of fury on their faces.

"Please." she started her voice trembling and barely above a whisper. "Please we didn't mean you any harm we were just trying to get away from the vampire."

"Vampire." The black haired man's eyes blazed. "There is a vampire here?"

"No not here, in the woods. He found us when we got away from the guards."

"The nearest woods are miles from here and there were no men outside." The man stared hard at them. "Julian. Search. This sanctuary has been sufficiently disturbed, a vampire of some age could sense it and suprised us. Go."

The second man with golden hair, twin it seemed to the first who had spoken nodded and disappeared from sight. Sophia felt in no less danger now they outnumbered the men.

"Gregori." The second black haired man spoke. This one had black eyes and was shorter though oddly similar to the speaker. His eyes were fixed on Serenity. "The second woman is dying."

Bow cried out as if he had been physically hit and bent over Serenity weeping and screaming. Serenity grabbed her sister's hand and squeezed it until she thought her fingers would break.

_"Hold on Serenity, you have to hold on." _She screamed it down the link they shared hoping to find spark there to reassure her. There was no response, the presecene of her sister felt weaker than ever in her mind. The speaker glanced at his fellow.

"Darius heal her if it is possible, if it is not ease her passing as best you can."

"NO." Bow threw himself at the nearest man, tears still streaming down his face. His unnatural speed caught the golden haired man by suprise but it was still with ease that he caught his attacker by the throat and threw Bow against the wall. The black haired Gregori was by his compainion's side before Bow even hit the wall.

"Are you hurt Aidan?" he said to the golden haired man.

"No." Aidan replied "Although that was unusual. I have never seen a human react so quickly to your lack of tact my friend."

"I was tactless? I was unware. If your attacker is safe enough to let live I will apologize to him. However that was not human behaviour."

"That brother is because these people are not human." The man Darius was bending over Serenity now one hand on her heart. He lifted his head and Sophia recognised the to and fro expressions of a private mental conversation. Jordan had wrapped both arms around her as she clutched her sister's hand too frightened to speak further.

_"Live." _Was all she could think to say down the weakening link. _"Please live."_

When the conversation stopped the fury seemed to have gone from the men's faces replaced with something dark but unreadable. Gregori was by Serenity's side now too. Sophia watched half with horror, half with hunger as he carefully cut a red line across his wrist and held it to her sister's mouth. She could feel life flooding into the link as blood poured into Serenity's starved systems.

Aidan transferred his grip to Bow's shoulder and flipped him over anger in the golden eyes.

"Why did you not feed her. You are her mate you must have known how hungry she was."

"Tell me how." Bow's face was bloodied and tear stained, his nose had been smashed against the wall and was bleeding. "Tell me how and I will, every drop I have. Anything for her, please just tell me how." He was so weak as relief flooded his systems that his legs gave out. Sophia looked on shocked as Aiden grabbed Bow under the arms as he pitched forward no longer able to stand.

_"They are all starving."_ Darius's voice in her head made Sophia jump out of her skin. _"They are human in their mind although their bodies are so close to ours there is little difference between our species. We must get them back to your house Aidan, they must feed and we must question them. Two females and two males from what I have seen partially joined and perhaps able to produce children, they must be kept alive."_

"There are more of us." Sophia's voice startled her, it sounded so distant to her mind. She was suddenly acutely aware how hungry she was, how much pain she was in and how close she was to giving in to the sheer physical exhaustion of the past few days. She had to let the Carpathians know about the others, they had to save them too. The thought of losing Vespera, Fiske and Angel when they had come this far was almost as painful as the thought of losing Serenity had been.

"In the building below the woods two others like us and and a wounded Carpathian named Fiske." Sophia began again, speaking to fight the urge to sleep on the soft earth for a very long time. "The vampire and lots of men there are holding them in a big complex with a load of blood thirsty grey monsters that escaped and are chasing the others. Fiske says to kill them all but not Vespera because she's his girlfriend or Angel if she's still alive because she's like us but she drove a metal spike through a monsters chest when it turned and..." Jordan squeezed her shoulders to stop her and pointed. All three of the Carpathians were stock still staring at her, expressions nearing bemusement on their faces.

"Start again." Jordan whispered holding her tightly. "This time at the beginning, I'll help you with the middle and the end..." He hesitated exhaustion eminated from their mental path. "I think we're going to have to leave the end up to them."


	22. Chapter 22

The darkness was still and quiet. Although the tunnel the darkness lived in was not a natural one it had been built many years ago and since it had been closed at either end nothing had stirred the black air with it's passage since. The silence had expanded into something huge big enough to fill a cathedral, deep enough to fill a chasym yet still so fragile something so small as the movement of a moth's wing could shatter it. But the tunnel lay empty in its darkness and silence with it's ends sealed and no living thing to disturb it's status quo. At least until now when the sound of hurried footsteps in the darkness stirs the dirt from the earth floor and shakes the dust motes from the air. There were voices too although one of them it is perhaps best not to listen to too closely.

"Fucking, fucking bloody beasts." Angel swore as the three figures ran on through the tunnel. "I'm about as far from bloody prissy as you can get but for fucks sake I have monster flesh under my finger nails and this damn blood itches like mad, if I could just clean it off."

"I'm sorry this is the one time I haven't got a tissue on me." Said Vespera ignoring the constant swearing, accutely aware it was some sort of release valve for the horror Angel had just had to go through to open the escape door.

_"You did exceptionally well Angel." _Said Fiske, the old Carpathian was walking now although Angel and Vespera were still bearing most of his weight. Being out of the cell he thought he would die in Vespera knew was helping him perhaps more even than the blood he had taken. _" I wish we could let you remove the traces of the monster but we cannot stop here. I do not know when the vampire will return to his hole."_

"He told me his name was Albursel when he was still being friendly." said Vespera staring into the darkness ahead of them. "He went after the others I hope he tries to charm them first it may give them a fighting chance."

"With any luck they've called for reinforcements and he'll run into a bunch of Carpathians bent on ripping his lungs out." snorted Angel pulling Fiske along. It was only then they noticed he'd stopped walking. Vespera reached up and touched his face, his skin felt waxy and cold to the touch.

"Fiske what's wrong?"

_"Albursel."_ Fiske's voice was hollow.

"Yes the Vampire here in the compound the one who's controlling the men." Vespera said gently. Fiske paused for a moment, then his voice came raw to her mind.

_"I was hunting Albursel before the men trapped me. I had been tracking him for weeks when he sent a female he had turned after me knowing how close I was to the edge and hoping seeing a woman like that would...would stir things in me. I had to kill her but it was...difficult and I was badly wounded. The men dug me up that morning when I was resting in the ground. They knew where to dig, they knew how to bind me, to poison me, to drain me."_

"Fiske?"

_"I thought they had found me by chance, that I had not been careful enough when choosing a resting place that day, that it had been unlucky the men were in the area. I never imagined Albursel had directed their hand, that he had trapped me like a wolf in a pit, that he had planned how to catch me at my most vunerable." _Fiske's anger was rising now the rage in his heart blacking out even the pain of body. Vespera felt something beastial stir within him testing the chains it had been leashed with for so long.

"Fiske." she said gently turning his head and trying to get the white eye to focus on her.

"_All those weeks and months of endless pain and sickening draining. All that time he was sitting there behind it all. I'll rip him to pieces and feed him to the sun." _The voice was almost a growl now as the darkness tried to rise up and steal him. He was so close to the edge now Vespera could see the black pit beyond. Instinctively she leaned over and kissed him pulling him to her and letting him rest his weight on her shoulders. She felt the bump of the missing part of his mouth and the point of his incisor through the gap. She could feel the heat within them both well up and exploded where their skin connected.

Fiske froze then slowly ever so slowly lay his hand on her cheek and gently pulled away.

_"I am so close my heart. So close I am not even sure I should not meet the dawn even now I have found you. I want you so badly I may kill you if we do not mate soon, even then it is a possibility. I am fighting this darkness so hard I can barely spare the energy to think now. If help doesn't come tonight it may be too late, I do not want to kill you and I do not want to hurt Angel."_

_"Then you won't."_ Vespera replied looking up at him. _"We will get through this Fiske, it will be alright. We had to go through all this to find each other we can't give in now."_

"Will you two please get a room." came Angel's voice. The red head had her thumbs in the waistband of her scrubs and was staring at the wall uncomfortably.

_"You have no idea how much I wish that was possible Angel."_ said Fiske smiling at Vespera.

"And so I can treasure that ignorance I'm going to walk ahead a bit before you two break apart nudy boy." replied Angel stalking off into the darkness. Her voice came floating back to them. "If it helps any I'll put my fingers in my ears and promise not to turn around for five minutes but just remember we've got a whole load of shit chasing us Mr and Mrs Lovebird."

_"What does she mean?"_ said Vespera, Fiske was smiling.

_"I do not think of Angel as someone who will go back on her word so..."_

Fiske was not strong but suddenly his full weight bore Vespera to the ground in a tangle of limbs. His lips found hers and began where her kiss had finished.

_"Five minutes." _ Came his voice horse and strangely intimate in her mind. _"What can we possibly do in five minutes." _Fire exploded deep in Vespera's core and the danger, the location and Angel's proximity were forgotten. She gripped his shoulders and pulled him closer to her knowing this was what he needed, what they both needed, before the next set of nightmares ahead.

Fiske found the hem of her scrub top and trailed his fingers over her ribs creating swirls of heat on her skin. He trailed his fingers up gently biting her lower lip, then her jaw, then her neck. Vespera gasped as she felt the tips of his fangs against the curve of her shoulder as they began gently to scrape up and down against her skin leaving little lines of electricity in their wake. His fingers found the line of her bra and his thumb flexed against the swell of one breast fanning the flames within her. One finger snaked under the fabric of her bra and hooked up bunching the material. There was a sharp rip as Fiske tore at the cotton cup to expose her hot skin to the palm of one hand. His mouth snaked up and down Vespera neck stoking the fires in her chest and sending trails down her stomach into her groin.

She arched against him feeling for the first time his reaction to her pressing against her belly. Pulling his face to hers again she kissed him more deeply as his hand trailed down over her stomach towards when molten fire seemed to be pouring between her legs. Fingers pulled at the elastic of the cheap scrubs easing them down over the curve of her hips and past her legs. One hand stroked leisurely against her hip making her sqirm in anticipation as it the fingers moved over the flesh of her thigh past the forest of dark curls and down into her. She bit down on her lip to keep from crying out as his fingers moved faster and deeper his mouth once more trailing the curve of her shoulder his weight pressing hard into her leg.

Suddenly she felt the points of his fangs press down into her skin. It was as if fire and ice had poured into her creating points of pure sensation where his fangs pierced her. At the same time the fingers disappeared and he pushed into her driving bolts of electricity up through her core and back again. Preassure began to build within her as his pace increased. She could feel the beast within him fighting to break free of the sensations and rise up untamed within him. He rose above it riding with her the wave of pleasure their bodies created driving himself deep within her as the molten preassure increased until she was thrust over the edge into a climax that shook her whole body. Fiske poured into her the darkness within him finally lost to her light. She felt the release in his mind as the fury subsided, they lay together on the floor for a moment listening to their hearts return to their normal beat.

_"I have been waiting for that moment my entire life my heart. It was worth every second."_ Fiske said stroking Vespera's hair from her face. She smiled up at him and he kissed her once more softly on the mouth. _"I am glad that I did not hurt you I promise that next time we will be in more comfortable surroundings." _

_"I don't know as tunnel floors go it was quite cosy."_ Vespera said trailing her fingers along the base of his spine. He nuzzled her again the wounds his teeth had made already closing.

_"Keep that up and we may never get off this floor and our five minutes are nearly up. Come we should keep moving." _ Whispered Fiske against her neck sending fresh tremors down her body. He rose slowly and helped her to her feet, pulling the scrubs back up and over her body. There was a vague ripple in the air over him and suddenly he was wearing a set of scrub trousers of his own.

_"This should placate Angel slightly." _He said as she tucked herself back under his arm to help him. He was steadier now baring more of his own weight although he was limping heavily. _"We should catch up to her and leave this place before..."_ He stopped staring into the darkness ahead, his body froze and she felt his mind tense. Then she heard something from the darkness ahead, the scrape of something heavy dragging on the dirt floor coming slowly towards them.

The red eyes appeared before he came into view, a shape in the darkness moving slowly with menacing purpose out of the tunnel ahead. It was only when he drew closer that Vespera stifled a scream as she made out the heavy shape being dragged along the floor behind him. The red hair trailed over her closed eyes and ther was blood on the neck and the ripped scrubs and skin almost hiding the black tattoos from view. Albursel dropped Angel's limped form and licked the blood and gore from his chin.

"Dinner and a show." He said the eyes glowing in the dark. "How delightful."


	23. Chapter 23

Fiske launched himself at the vampire before the last words were out of Albursels mouth. The vampire caught the gaunt figure easily and threw him leisurely on the floor.

"So my dear Mathers you have found yourself a female." Said Albursel his eyes blazing "After all these years. My congratulations my old friend."

Fiske was up on his feet and reaching for the vampire again but the creature moved lazily out of the way and batted at him with a blow that landed Fiske once more on the floor.

"My my dear Fiske. You are quite out of condition for a hunter. What fun we used to have chasing around the woodlands above, you were in your prime then. It was entertaining watching you picking up the pieces of my trail. Sometimes an arm there, a leg here, sometimes one of my creatures lying in wait." Albursel crowed. Fiske took a swipe at the vampires leg, now the carpathian could barely rise onto his knees. Albursel kicked him hard and watched him roll against the imobile form of Angel.

"The hikers to turn got remarkably hard for me to find towards the end. But then I came across Natalia, dear sweet Natalia. She fought me hard, it was delightful to watch her struggle against the transformation. You tore out her heart I believe, though she almost tore out yours. It was the most fun I had in years." He smiled at the memory. Fiske didn't move he lay as he had fallen, he head buried against Angel's shoulder one arm flung over her stomach. Albursel turned his eyes to Vespera.

"But now you have done so well for yourself. This beautiful creature and the red headed giant I had the fortune to meet further up this tunnel. Ah now she put up a struggle to be sure, it was all I could do to stop her from calling to you, but I find they all succumb in the end." Albursel smiled at Vespera the blood still wet on his mouth. His words made her feel sick to the stomach, was Angel even still alive.

There was the faint beat from Angels mind, whatever had been done to her she lived although her conciousness had retreated deep inside her mind. Something else caught Vespera's notice, Fiskes link was getting stronger. The carpathian's strength was coming back in waves, his mind was sharp now without the distraction of the ever present darkness trying to break him. It took her a moment to realise how, her mate was feeding, feeding from the only source of fresh blood near to him, Angel.

Albursel saw was was happening only a second after Vespera. With a snarl he bent to tear Fiske away from the food source and was met with a fist full of claws. The Vampire screamed as Fiske scratched at his face, tearing at the pale skin until the black blood flowed. When they pulled apart Vespera saw one of Albursel's eyes was a bloody pulp in it's socket.

Albursel tried to back away but Fiske followed tearing, kicking and biting at the retreating form until Albursel had no choice but to turn and try to fend him off. The fresh blood had done it's work and Fiske was as fast if not as strong as the vampire. The lifetime of hunting instincts honed were every mistake was a fatal one were coming back into play for the old carpathian. He moved in a blur always just out of Albursels reach, taking advantage of each mistake the raging vampire made to drive another blow into the things torso. Vespera knew Fiske was trying to tear out the heart but Albursel was now fighting for his life. Every strike the vampire made was a killing blow and it was only by the skin of his teeth that Fiske was avoiding them.

Without warning something dark formed in the air between the two fighters. Fiske spat a word in a language Vespera had never heard before and the dark shape faded. Before the last trails of the thing had vanished Fisked thrust one arm forward and into Albursel's chest. The vampire screamed Fiske pulled out it's heart, blue flames already forming over the closed fist. For a second Albursel tried to crawl after Fiske but the fire caught his flesh and he began to burn, his body truning to ash where the fire touched.

Fiske let the ash drop and turned his hands in the fire to clean the black blood from his skin. He was breathing heavily the new cuts on his body bleeding freely as the last of the fire on Albursels body died.

"He will rise no more." Fiskes voice was hushed and unsteady. "He did not expect me to be able to break his spell. I am glad he was..." Fiske stopped his eye scanning the darkness his mind once more on edge. He stepped between Vespera and the tunnel mouth, something else was coming towards them from the darkness ahead. For a moment Vespera though Fiske was going to spring on some other horror from the facility above but then his body began to relax.

A man with hair like gold emerged from the darkness ahead. His shirt had blood on it and the etheral golden eyes blazed in the darkness.

"I was beginning to think you were going to toy with that thing all night Fiske. I was on the verge of killing it myself." He said smiling at them.

"Julian Savage, you cannot begin to imagine how good it is to see you again." Said Fiske his voice barely a whisper. Vespera could feel the emotion rise within him, she knew he had almost given up hope of living to see his people again. "Our friend needs blood if you have not been injured. She has been badly wounded by the vampire and I unfortunately had to feed from her to kill it."

"This blood is not mine." Said Julian moving over to the prone form and cutting a wrist. "There are still men and strange grey creatures in the woods. Gregori has ordered us to kill all of them while he and Lucian deal with the main compound."

"There are many hunters here?" Fiske asked , Vespera could feel the buzz of the other minds in the back of her head now, a swarm of thoughts bent on wiping out the facility around them.

"We were meeting with many of the Daratrazanoffs and their families when we were called. Nearly every male came here after Sophia explained what had happen, except Aidan and he is not pleased that Gregori sent him back to his house with your friends." said Julian. Vespera started. In the danger of the past hour she had forgotten about her companions.

"The others are they ok?" She said.

"The ones that we collected from the Sanctury are well. I should tell you that Tyron and Tryst died on the way to us. Your friends will tell you how when you see them." Julian replied as he closed his wrist and lifted Angel onto one shoulder. For the first time his face was dark as he took in the full extent of Fiske's scarring. "We should leave here now. You are all in need of healers and I think Gregori and Lucian are about to start tearing this place apart. Can you travel?"

"No." said Fiske shaking his head sadly. Vespera moved to him and dragged his arm over her shoulder again. Her legs were shaking with near exhaustion. He smiled at her. "Vespera has never travelled as we do and she is as tired as I am, she too will need help."

Vespera saw Julian's features smooth for a second. Without warning a black haired man appeared near them.

"You should not still be here Julian. Gregori will call down the lightning any second now." Said the stranger moving over to Fiske and Vespera. Julian moved and then seemed to disappear infront of them. The black haired man stared after him for a minute and then took Fiske from Vespera and reached out for her hand.

"I am Darius, Gregori's brother. I have been asked to come with you to Aidan's house and tend your wounds. Your bretheran are anxious to see you." He paused for a minute as if someone was talking to him. "Gregori is calling down the sky to destroy this place. Hold onto me we must go now."

Vespera cautiously took the thick hand, Darius had a very firm grip. She glanced once at Fiske and then the world seemed to melt away beneath them. She saw the earth and woods fall away beneath then they were past the black thunder clouds above the facility. They moved on away from the nightmare of the compound and its world of pain and blood. Vespera caught sight of one flash of lightning break through the clouds before she drifted off into the darkness of an exhausted sleep.


	24. Chapter 24

The air felt heavy and hot bound in muggy darkness bereft of moon and stars . There was the feeling of something hard beneath, grainy like sand but solid and dry against her skin. Consciousness came slowly, her body no longer ached although it still felt stiff and sore and she lay in the all consuming darkness still drowsy, waiting for her senses to return to her.

Vespera knew it was night time without questioning why. She knew time had passed but remembered little of what had happened in that time. There had been periods of brief conciousness filled by the sound of quiet voices chanting, the feel of cool earth and the taste of blood.

Next to her Fiske stirred. Their hands were entwined together and she could feel his fingers twitch as he began to wake. She could feel in his mind how much his body had healed in his people's care. His wounds had closed, his flesh had filled out, his strength was returning slowly. He would have scars and his pulped eye was beyond repair but he was on the way to becoming whole again.

In the back of her mind she felt the others begin to wake. There was no Tyron, no Tryst and she mourned both of them but she knew how lucky it was they had not lost more of her small unconventional family in their escape. She felt Angel's mind surface briefly a mass of rage and fear awaking from nightmares old and new. Vespera reached out with her heart and calmed the tangle of emotions letting the red head drift back into sleep. Above she could hear children playing, the steady rumble of voices in the house above and around them.

_"I don't think I have ever felt so many Carpathians so close." _Fiske said startling her. _"Not since I was a small child. It is good to feel such a thing again. I count this and watching you sleep as two of my most favourite things."_

_"You were watching me."_ replied Vespera. _"For how long."_ Fiske smiled.

_"I lost track of the time my heart. The others are stirring, tonight I will have to begin teaching you how to survive in your new bodies."_

_"Angel worries me."_ said Vespera. _"Her mind is so full of rage now."_

_"I know." _said Fiske sadly. _"I do not believe she has had a good life and the vampire's attack has made her worse. She will need time and our help to start getting over what has happened to her."_

_"I keep thinking if we had stayed together, if we hadn't..."_ Vespera blushed to herself and Fiske squeezed her hand gently.

_"Albursel would have found us walking towards him. He would have seen the three of us as too great a threat and he would have killed us all instead of trying to keep you and Angel for himself. If I had been still unmated I believe the bloodlust on seeing him would have been my final undoing, I would have turned while trying to kill him and then turned on you."_ Fiske said sadly. _"Do not distress yourself my heart and stop trying to remind me of what happened on the tunnel floor we are meant to be lying here healing."_ Vespera smiled as she caught the playful edge to his voice. She felt the heat begin to rise under her skin.

_"We would still be lying here healing my love." _She said letting go of his hand and trailing her fingers up the soft skin of his hip. _"Just in a slightly different position."_

Nearby in the soil the tattooed giant grimaced in dreams of blood and pain. On her body the tattoos marking her life were marred by the thin white lines the healing chants had been unable to fully banish. On her arm the ink lady forever wept in fear as below her etched in black on Angel's knuckles the contorted face of the rage stared out at the world through bulging eyes. On her heart the paper bird sailed against the sun to heaven where the ink wings had never taken her.

The wings bit into the dirt as Angel turned over. Below them a standing bear looked out sizing up the world outside. On her forearm a bear's head showed it's fangs in anger at something unseen. Her shoulder held a second bear's head and on her thigh another bear roared. The same green eyes stared out of each tattoo, the same bear drawn over and over onto Angel's body. In her dream the red eyes of the vampire burned once again in the dark place before fading into nothing. Here something moved as Angel's mind found itself a quiet sanctuary amoungst the whirl of her pain. The bear turned to meet her. Green eyes the colour of fresh cut emeralds stared at her out of the darkness until they seemed to glow with a force beyond the power of mere dreams.

_"Hold on."_ he said _"I'm so close now. Hold on."_

**The adventure continues in Dark Redemption.**


End file.
